Maxine McKew
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| Maxine McKew | |
 Maxine McKew |
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Australian Labor Party candidate for Bennelong
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| Preceded by | Nicole Campbell |
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| Born | 1953 Brisbane, Queensland  |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Residence | Mosman, New South Wales |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Maxine McKew (born 1953) is a parliamentary candidate for the Australian Labor Party and a former journalist living in Sydney, Australia. As a broadcaster, McKew hosted a number of programmes on Australian Broadcasting Corporation television and radio, most recently Lateline and The 7.30 Report. In February 2007, McKew announced her candidacy for Bennelong, the federal parliamentary seat held by Prime Minister John Howard.
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[edit] Personal
McKew was born and grew up in Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland. Her father, Bryan McKew, was a boilermaker who at times struggled with alcoholism. When Maxine was five, her mother Elaine died, and she was sent to live with her grandparents for three years. When Bryan remarried, Maxine and her sister Margo returned to live with their father in the suburb of Moorooka. McKew attended All Hallows' School in Brisbane.[1] McKew currently lives in the Sydney suburb of Mosman with her partner, former ALP National Secretary Bob Hogg (they cannot marry as McKew is Catholic and Hogg is divorced).[2] McKew has indicated active plans to move into the electorate of Bennelong. [3]
On March 3 2007, allegations of death threats against McKew were widely reported.[4][5][6]
[edit] Media
After matriculating she briefly attended university before dropping out and living in London for two years. She supported herself with a variety of temporary jobs, including relief typing at a London BBC office. A letter of introduction—written by McKew on BBC letterhead paper—was rewarded with a cadetship at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in Brisbane in 1974 following a brief stint as a news analyst at investment bank Goldman Sachs. In 1976 she moved on to host "This Day Tonight", a local current affairs program.[1] In over 30 years working at the ABC, McKew worked as a presenter on the 7:30 Report and Lateline. Over her career she also worked on the Carleton/Walsh Report, AM, PM, and The Bottom Line. McKew was honoured for her work with a Logie (broadcasting) and a Walkley (journalism) award. In October 2006 she announced that she was leaving the ABC. "This is more than likely the end of my broadcasting career," the 53-year-old told AAP.[7]
In addition from 1999 to 2004 she wrote "Lunch with Maxine McKew", a column for the weekly Bulletin magazine, based on her interviews with prominent Australians. McKew frequently elicited newsworthy revelations from her subjects.[8]
[edit] Politics
Before the 2004 election, McKew had reportedly expressed interest in running as a Labor candidate at a federal level. In 2004, then Labor leader Mark Latham attempted to lure McKew with preselection to a safe Western Sydney seat. Latham recorded in his diary that his efforts failed because the broadcaster would not move from her home in exclusive Mosman to Labor's outer-suburban heartland. In typically acerbic style, Latham wrote, "So Maxine wants to be a Labor MP, but can't stand the sight or smell of Labor voters, hey?"[9]
After resigning from the ABC, McKew joined the Australian Labor Party as a special adviser on strategy to Labor leader Kevin Rudd. In early February, the Daily Telegraph reported that McKew was in contention to gain preselection for the Division of Fowler in Western Sydney, held by a safe Labor seat held by Julia Irwin.[10] However on February 25, Rudd's office confirmed that McKew would run against Prime Minister John Howard in the Division of Bennelong.
Following a redistribution in 2006, the once-safe Liberal seat had become notionally marginal, with Labor needing a swing of 4% to win it. A Morgan poll conducted for Crikey, a website, the week before put Labor's two-party preferred vote in the seat at 55%.[11]
[edit] Other interests
McKew is a long-term participant in the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue, a bipartisan bilateral civil diplomatic initiative founded by Melbourne businessman Phil Scanlan. [1] Additional activities include membership of the Women’s Advisory Group to the National Breast Cancer Centre, and membership of the University of Sydney’s Research Institute for Asia Pacific. She is also the Patron of Osteoporosis Australia and is a member of the Sydney Symphony Council.
[edit] Honours
- The 1998 Walkley Award for Broadcast Interviewing for her work on Lateline.
- 1999 Logie Award for Most Outstanding News-Public Affairs Broadcaster
- A 2003 Centenary Medal for contribution to Australian journalism
- 2003 Magazine Publishers Association named her Columnist of the Year
[edit] Quotations
- "People have a nervous collapse when I've actually broken through and got someone to say something honest. It is either regarded as a gaffe, or people say they must have been drunk, or publicly musing aloud, or they didn't realise the tape was running, or I must have had oral sex with them under the table. I find it absurd."[8]
- "Women do give up something. It's biology..... Let me tell you what I gave up. I wanted my career. And so I never had children." (Quoted in Jack Welch's 2005 book, Winning[12])
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Reference list
- ^ a b Fraser, Andrew. "Hard start unites McKew and Rudd", The Australian, February 27 2007. Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
- ^ Overington, Caroline. "Taking it to the Max", The Australian Magazine, March 31 2007.
- ^ Davis, Mark. "Look who's taking on the PM in Bennelong", The Sydney Morning Herald, February 26 2007.
- ^ Benson, Simon. "McKew Death Threats", Herald Sun, 3rd March 2007. Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
- ^ Kirby, Simon. "McKew to fight on despite scare", Herald Sun, 3rd March 2007. Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
- ^ Creagh, Sunanda. "McKew car theft theory", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2007-03-05. Retrieved on March 5, 2007.
- ^ AAP. "Maxine McKew to quit ABC", The Sydney Morning Herald, October 24 2006. Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
- ^ a b Simons, Margaret. "Agent of influence", The Sydney Morning Herald, November 8 2003. Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
- ^ Latham, Mark (2005). The Latham Diaries. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Publishing Limited. ISBN 0522852157.
- ^ Milne, Glen & Neil Mercer (February 4 2006), "Maxine McWho? Fowler voters don't even know her name", The Daily Telegraph: 10
- ^ Dunlevy, Sue (February 25 2007), "Man of steel faces down McKew", The Daily Telegraph
- ^ Dasey, Daniel. "Career, not children: McKew", The Daily Telegraph, April 10 2005. Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
