Alan Ramsey’s last word after a life writ large

Respected political journalist Alan Ramsey has died, aged 82.

Alan Ramsey.

Respected political journalist Alan Ramsey has died, aged 82.

Ramsey, who was described by his peers as fearless, courageous and relentless in his pursuit of a story, spent much of this year in a nursing home on the south coast of NSW.

His 56-year career in journalism began in 1953 as a copy boy and included a stint as the deputy editor of The Australian, and a lengthy period writing a weekend column for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Ramsey was 28 when he went to work in the Canberra press gallery in 1966 after returning from Vietnam as a war correspondent the year before.

In 2017, Ramsey’s mark on journalism was recognised when he was admitted to the Australian media’s hall of fame.

“Ramsey didn’t much care whether people loved him or hated him — each category was oversubscribed — but Ramsey’s journalism meant nobody could survive to lunchtime without having read his column,” The Australian newspaper’s editor-at-large Paul Kelly wrote at the time. “For 50 years he stalked the halls of power, driven by a compulsion to expose self-interest in the public interest.

“He brought politicians to vivid, pulsating life, since his focus was political character and the intoxicating spell of power.

“He wrote with insight and anger about human frailty and the egregious, hypocritical, funny and uplifting sides of political life.

“His imprint is all over political coverage of his times.”

Ramsay wrote a well-read column for the Herald between 1987 and 2008 after having worked as Labor leader Bill Hayden’s press secretary from 1978 to 1983.

But he was best known for a sensational story published in March 1971, when he reported that the head of Army, Sir Thomas Daly, had accused the then defence minister Malcolm Fraser of extreme disloyalty to the Army and its minister, Andrew Peacock. That story led to a rift between the then prime minister, John Gorton, and Fraser — the latter resigned and the former eventually left office.

During the showdown on the floor of parliament an angry Ramsey interjected on Gorton, shouting “you liar” before a startled parliament.

In late 1973 Ramsey was forced out of The Australian — he was told to transfer to the Sunday Telegraph and refused.

Ramsey had three children with his first wife Jeanette; with his second wife, journalist Laura Tingle, he had a daughter.

Ramsay and Tingle, the ABC 730 program’s chief political correspondent, were married until their divorce in 2017.

Colleagues who worked in the Canberra Press Gallery with him paid tribute on Tuesday, with news.com.au political editor Samantha Maiden writing: “Sad to hear of the death of Alan Ramsey, a fearless giant of journalism who worked out of an office piled with documents … he was particularly foul tempered on column day, which was the best day of all for readers.”

“He would wrestle with the empty page for a long time, and then, on the last possible deadline, it would magically land,” NSW Education Department secretary Mark Scott, a former ABC managing director and one-time Herald journalist, wrote.

Ramsey died on Tuesday, having suffered from dementia for some time.