Andrew Peacock

Peacock was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of Andrew Sharp Peacock Sr and his wife, Iris Lamb. His father was a marine engineer and one of the founders of Peacock and Smith Ltd, a large shipbuilding firm. He was educated at Scotch College and at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated in law. He practised law in Melbourne while making a rapid advance in the Liberal Party. He unsuccessfully contested the seat of Yarra in the 1961 federal election, although he bucked the national trend by increasing the Liberal primary vote, impressing party elders. He was president of the Young Liberals in 1962 and, in 1963, he married Susan Rossiter (1942–2016), the daughter of Victorian Liberal MLA Sir John Rossiter.[1] They had three daughters, one of them being the horse trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam.[2] By 1965 he was president of the Victorian Liberal Party.

Peacock after being sworn in as Army Minister in 1969

In February 1966, former prime minister Sir Robert Menzies resigned, triggering a by-election in Kooyong, the eastern Melbourne electorate that he had held for 32 years. Peacock gained Liberal preselection, making him the favourite in this comfortably safe Liberal seat. The Liberals (and their predecessors) had held the seat since Federation, usually without serious difficulty. As expected, he won the 2 April by-election, albeit with a slightly reduced majority. He easily retained his seat in the general election held seven months later. In 1969 he was appointed Minister for the Army and in this role played a minor part in the drama which brought down then prime pinister John Gorton in 1971. In 1972, William McMahon made him Minister for Territories, in charge of Australia's colonial possession, Papua New Guinea, where he was responsible for bringing in self-government.[3]

When the Liberals went into opposition in December 1972, Peacock became a senior member of the Liberal frontbench. As a party moderate, he was a supporter of the new leader, Billy Snedden. When Snedden lost the 1974 election, Peacock began to be seen as a leadership candidate, but it was Malcolm Fraser who took the initiative and deposed Snedden in 1975. Fraser made Peacock foreign affairs spokesperson, and when Fraser led the Liberals back to power in December 1975 Peacock became Minister for Foreign Affairs, aged 36.

He served as foreign minister until 1980, acquiring a reputation as an effective, well-connected and hardworking minister, although he was seen by some as an international playboy, particularly through his well-publicised relationship with Shirley MacLaine (his marriage had by this time ended in divorce). He had a number of acrimonious disputes with Fraser, particularly over the recognition of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. After the 1980 election he asked for a change of portfolio, and Fraser made him Minister for Industrial Relations. In April 1981 he suddenly resigned, accusing Fraser of constant interference in his portfolio. Fraser called a party meeting, at which Peacock tried to depose him as party leader and prime minister. Fraser managed to fend off this challenge. John Howard succeeded Sir Phillip Lynch as deputy leader in the same meeting.

Peacock returned to cabinet in October 1982, replacing the retiring Lynch as Minister for Industry and Commerce. He held that position until the defeat of the Fraser Government.

Fraser's government was defeated in the March 1983 election by the Labor Party under Bob Hawke. Fraser immediately retired from politics, and Peacock contested the party leadership, defeating Howard, who remained as Deputy Leader.

As Opposition Leader, Peacock faced an uphill battle against the hugely popular Hawke.

In fact unlike the previous time his party was in Opposition between 1972 and 1975 first led by Billy Snedden and then by Malcolm Fraser, Peacock did not push for an early election. When an early election was called however in late 1984, he described it as unnecessary and accused Hawke of calling one for fear of the economy turning down in the following year 1985.[4]

At the 1984 election he was given little chance of winning, but he performed better than expected by reducing Hawke's majority. In 1985, as Labor's position in opinion polls improved, Peacock's popularity sank and Howard's profile rose, keeping leadership speculation alive. Peacock said he would no longer accept Howard as deputy unless he offered assurances that he would not challenge for the leadership. Following Howard's refusal to offer such an assurance, in September 1985 Peacock sought to replace him with John Moore as Deputy Leader.[5] The party room re-elected Howard as Deputy, contrary to Peacock's wishes. Despite possessing greater support in the parliamentary party than Howard,[6] Peacock unexpectedly resigned, concluding the situation was untenable. Howard was comfortably elected Opposition Leader on 5 September,[7] and he appointed Peacock Shadow Foreign Minister. However, after a private car-phone conversation between Peacock and then-Victorian opposition leader (and future Premier) Jeff Kennett severely attacking Howard was leaked to the press, Howard dismissed Peacock from his shadow cabinet in March 1987, calling Peacock's actions "damaging" and "unloyal".[8]

Howard lost the 1987 election to Hawke, largely due to the Nationals pulling out of the Coalition in support of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen's quixotic bid to become Prime Minister. After the election, Peacock was elected Deputy Leader in a show of party unity. But Peacock's supporters began to plot against Howard, and in May 1989 they mounted a party room coup which returned Peacock to the leadership. Peacock, now 50, cultivated a new mature image, enhanced by a second marriage to Margaret St George. He also renewed the Coalition with the Nationals.

On 18 March 1990, Peacock was interviewed by Laurie Oakes on the television program Sunday, regarding his stance on the Multifunction Polis (MFP), a proposal to build a Japanese funded technology city in Australia.[9] Peacock attacked the MFP concept, saying it would become an Asian "enclave".[10] According to Roy Morgan Research, Peacock's attack on the MFP did not help him politically, and the Labor Party used the issue to highlight division within the Liberal Party, as John Elliott and others supported the MFP.[9] The following day, The Australian newspaper ran a headline titled Peacock a 'danger in the Lodge'.'[9]

At the 1990 election the Coalition won a slim majority (50.10 percent) of the two-party vote and took seven seats from Labor. It also slashed Labor's majority from 24 seats to nine. However, it only garnered a 0.93 percent two-party swing. Combined with a three percent swing against the Nationals (who saw their leader, Charles Blunt, ousted in his own seat), this prevented the Coalition from picking up the additional seven seats the Coalition needed to make Peacock Prime Minister. This was all despite Hawke's government being in political trouble, with record high interest rates and a financial crisis in Victoria. Although Peacock was credited with helping the non-Labor forces regain much of what they had lost three years earlier, it was not enough to save his job, and he resigned after the election. He became Shadow Attorney-General (1990–92) and Shadow Trade Minister (1992–93) under the new leader, Dr John Hewson, whom Peacock had supported in getting the job in 1990 over Peter Reith and to stop Howard returning.[11] After Hewson's election as leader, Hewson endorsed Peacock as his deputy, which caused a furore with Howard supporters. Peacock, however, had no interest in becoming deputy leader again and withdrew happily. Peter Reith was instead elected deputy in a close contest against Peacock supporter David Jull.[12] Peacock believed Hewson to be the best man for the job after seeing that Hewson was a hard working shadow treasurer.[13]

He returned to Foreign Affairs when Hewson lost the 1993 election to Paul Keating. He retained Foreign Affairs when Hewson was displaced by Alexander Downer, whom Peacock supported after Hewson initiated the May 1994 spill. Peacock believed Hewson made a mistake in calling a spill; Peacock was not aware of Hewson's intention before it happened but decided afterwards to support Downer as he felt no longer obligated to support Hewson.[13]

Ambassador Peacock and Minister for Defence John Moore at the Pentagon in 1999.

Peacock resigned from Parliament in September 1994. In 1996 when asked about blocking John Howard, Malcolm Fraser said Peacock obviously was, while Peacock claimed he supported John Hewson continuing.[14] When Howard became Prime Minister in 1996, he appointed Peacock as the Australian Ambassador to the United States.[15] Since the end of this appointment in 1999, Peacock has mostly lived in the United States.[16]

In 2002 he married Penne Percy Korth, a Washington, D.C. society figure and former United States Ambassador to Mauritius. Midway through 2002 Peacock joined Boeing Australia Holdings as President of Boeing Australia.[17] He retired from Boeing in 2007, and joined Gold Coast-based fund manager MFS Ltd as chairman.[18] He held the position for 15 months, resigning shortly before the firm collapsed with debts of $2.5 billion. He later stated: "I should have looked more carefully at MFS before going into it. The business wasn't going well, and I thought I could turn it around but I couldn't.".[19]

His daughter Ann Peacock married Liberal powerbroker Michael Kroger in 1999. They had two sons before separating in 2009. Peacock had earlier endorsed his future son-in-law Kroger as his successor in Kooyong in 1994 but Kroger declined.

Peacock with his third wife Penne Percy Korth Peacock at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2016

Peacock and his American-born third wife retired to Austin, Texas, where she had gone to university. He visits Australia regularly and does not intend to become a U.S. citizen, although he holds a green card. He gave up drinking after moving to the U.S., after experiencing heart problems. Peacock supported Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, after originally supporting Marco Rubio in the Republican primaries. He placed a bet on Trump to become president even before the first primary, at odds of 16–1. In a January 2018 interview with the Australian Financial Review, he said he was "disquieted by the first year's performance", praising Trump's tax cuts but expressing his disappointment with Trump's decisions to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. According to Peacock, his wife is a staunch conservative and regards him as "the most liberal person she's ever met". He has expressed dismay at the disappearance of moderate Republicans, and the general polarisation of American politics.[19]

Peacock was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1997.

For his role in bringing in New Guinea independence, Peacock was appointed a Chief Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu in 2006.[20]

In 2017, Peacock was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun by the government of Japan, "for his contribution to strengthening and promoting friendly relations between Japan and Australia".[21]

• Appearances on C-SPAN