Peter Kelly helped build the career of would-be prime minister Billy McMahon

Peter Kelly was many things in his life – from proofreader to Canberra insider – and unfailingly brave and honest with everyone.

Peter Kelly, former journalist and pres secretary, in 1996.

OBITUARY

Peter Kelly
Journalist. Born Launceston, June 6, 1930; died Sydney, Aug­ust 31, aged 91.

In late May 1969, federal cabinet ordered a raid. Police arrived at the offices of Maxwell Newton, the launch editor of The Australian in 1964. A confidential foreign affairs cable had appeared in a Newton newsletter.

Peter Kelly, then working for Newton, saw the officers approaching, picked up the cable and hid it in a bin. Within a half-hour, journalists, photographers and cameramen were recording the event as Newton, Kelly and Pat Wheatley served the police officers tea and sandwiches. The cable stayed hidden.

On December 27, 1962, Gough Whitlam picked Kelly up and drove him to the deputy Labor leader’s Cabramatta home. Kelly had been invited for dinner and was served steak and mushrooms followed by apple strudel.

The resulting profile in The Bulletin focused on Whitlam’s “obsession with his public image”. Kelly wrote: “It is quite possible for Whitlam to speak separately with two people of opposing views and for both of them to come away thinking he supports their case”.

Years later, Kelly was reintroduced to Margaret Whitlam, who said: “I know Mr Kelly. We invited him to dinner once. We will not make that mistake again.”

Kelly had a quick political intelligence, charm – when he chose to use it – and a stubborn insistence on always describing things exactly as he saw them. He did not hesitate to disagree if he saw reason for it.

It was as a political staffer with the Liberal Party that Kelly made his mark, as one of the first generation of ministerial press secretaries.

Kelly started out as a Labor man and his early life was shaped by the Great Depression and World War II, with his father often out of work. Aged 15, competing for jobs with returned servicemen, he became a guillotine operator and a proofreader.

A devout Catholic, he became an active ALP member in Victoria. By the time of the ALP split, he had become a strong anti-Communist and anti-totalitarian, and remained so.

At The Bulletin in the late 1950s, Kelly worked with editors including Donald Horne and David Coleman, letting his membership of the ALP lapse in deference to his role as a journalist.

In 1963, the editor told him that owner Clyde Packer was going to sack him. While interviewing a federal minister, William McMahon, Kelly asked if he knew anyone who needed a press secretary. McMahon did, and Kelly stayed with him for five years, helping him become Deputy Leader and Treasurer. (Later, Packer denied he had any such plan.)

In December 1967, Kelly was in the surf at Sydney’s Harbord when his son, Paul, waded out to tell him Sonia McMahon wished to speak to him. Kelly’s then-wife, Noanie, told him the news Harold Holt was missing. “What do you mean, missing?” he said. “Prime Ministers don’t go missing.”

At the McMahons’ residence, Sonia told him that Holt had probably drowned. Kelly realised McMahon was about to fly to Canberra on a VIP plane. He said to his boss: “Do you really want (a story) in tomorrow’s Sydney Morning Herald that McMahon arrived in Canberra before the body was even cold?” McMahon did not take the flight.

The next year, Kelly joined Newton. McMahon invited Kelly to return to work for him during the 1975 election campaign. Kelly met his second wife, Josephine, who joined McMahon’s staff.

Later, Kelly worked for the Federated Ironworkers’ Association, even managing to convince then-Opposition Leader John Howard to speak to the union’s national leadership. And in 1990, Kelly arranged a lunch with Tony Abbott and Howard. At the end of what Abbott described as a “very convivial” lunch, he was on his way to Canberra as John Hewson’s press secretary and a career in federal politics.

In 1996, Kelly was attacked by the Left after setting out evidence in the Courier-Mail that historian Manning Clark had been awarded the Order of Lenin. Kelly described Clark as an “agent of influence”.

In the late 1990s, Kelly organised dinners that became associated with Quadrant magazine through its editor, Paddy McGuinness, Kelly’s friend. These became influential meetings of conservative thinkers, with speakers including historian Geoffrey Blainey and journalist Melanie Phillips. The speeches were often published in The Australian.

There is a postscript to the Newton raid. After it, Newton’s secretary, Wheatley, who had also worked for McMahon, answered the telephone to hear a familiar voice: “The warrants. Check the warrants.” Newton and Kelly had them checked. The search warrants were ruled invalid and court action was halted.