Margaret Guilfoyle

Australian politician (1926–2020)

Dame Margaret Georgina Constance Guilfoyle ('/g//ɪ//l//f//ɔɪ//l/; née McCartney; 15 May 192611 November 2020) was an Australian politician who served as a senator for Victoria from 1971 to 1987, representing the Liberal Party. She was the first woman to hold a cabinet level ministerial portfolio in Australia and served as a minister for the duration of the Fraser government. Guilfoyle was successively Minister for Education (1975), Minister for Social Security (1975–1980) and Minister for Finance (1980–1983). She worked as an accountant before entering politics and in retirement held various positions in the public and non profit sectors.

Guilfoyle was born Margaret Georgina Constance McCartney on 15 May 1926 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was the second of three children born to Elizabeth Jane (née Ellis) and William McCartney; her father worked as a civil servant and her mother was a schoolteacher before her marriage. The family immigrated to Australia in 1928, settling in Melbourne. Her father died when she was 10, after which she and her siblings were raised by their mother; they had no other relatives in Australia. Guilfoyle later recalled that her mother's experiences led her to realise "that, at any time, a woman must be capable of independence". Guilfoyle began her education at the local state school in Fairfield, then attended a business college until the age of 15. She later took night classes while working as a secretary, studying accountancy at Taylors Institute of Advanced Studies and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. She eventually qualified as an accountant and chartered secretary and in 1947 became the head accountant at Overseas Corporation Australia Ltd, an export firm. She later went into private practice in order to spend more time with her family. retiring on 5 June 1987. Soon after taking her seat, Guilfoyle joined the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Government Operations. Guilfoyle was appointed to the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Ownership and Control of Australian Resources in 1972, and the following year joined the Joint Committee on Prices. The Herald described her as "a housewife with a big say on prices", she was the second woman appointed to cabinet, after Enid Lyons, and the second to be given a ministerial portfolio, after Annabelle Rankin. In 2001, she and Joan Kirner led a campaign to secure more nominations for women in the Australian honours system. On 13 June 2005, Guilfyle was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)[26]

Guilfoyle remained involved with the Liberal Party after leaving parliament. In 1993, she was briefly a candidate for federal president, the titular head of the party's organisational wing. She had the support of Jeff Kennett and Andrew Peacock, but withdrew from the race in favour of Malcolm Fraser; the successful candidate was Tony Staley, another of her cabinet colleagues. Later that year, she was appointed chair of the Liberal Women's Candidates Forum, which was set up by John Hewson to encourage women to run for office as Liberal candidates.

Guilfoyle's husband was Stanley Guilfoyle, whom she married on 20 November 1952. The couple had two daughters and a son. In 1976, Mungo MacCallum published an article in the Nation Review magazine alleging that Guilfoyle was having an extramarital affair with Jim Killen, one of her cabinet colleagues. Oblique references to the rumours had also been made in other publications. She and Killen sued for defamation, and obtained an injunction against further publication. Guilfoyle died on 11 November 2020, aged 94.