Andrew Peacock, at 80, reflects on life and politics
Having recently celebrated his 80th birthday, Andrew Peacock ponders the greatest defeat of his long and remarkable life.
Having recently celebrated his 80th birthday, Andrew Peacock sits on a couch at his home in Austin, Texas, and ponders a simple question: what does he consider the greatest defeat of his long and remarkable life?
Perhaps losing to Labor’s Bob Hawke in the 1984 and 1990 federal elections? Or his 1985 tussle with John Howard, which ended with Peacock resigning as Liberal Party leader?
“Unquestionably, far and away it was the 1974 Melbourne Cup when Leilani was beaten by Think Big,’’ says the former part-owner of Leilani.
“I still have nightmares over it. Leilani won everything but the Melbourne Cup. She came second and she was favourite, but she got caught in the shadows of the post. That was a shattering blow.’’
The racehorse lover’s answer says much about how this former opposition leader, foreign minister, ambassador and businessman reflects on his life.
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Proper bounds
In contrast to the poll-driven blood sport that politics has become, Peacock speaks to a more gentlemanly era, when winning in politics was important but it was not everything.
“Unlike most of my colleagues I did not hunger for the job as prime minister,’’ he says. “I truly was more interested in what we were doing than the post itself. I wanted good posts. I wanted to be the foreign minister, but being prime minister was not the central orient; it wasn’t the central purpose to what I was doing.
“I mean it was still important and disappointing to lose (in 1990). I don’t want to put it down, but I wasn’t sitting there like some do plotting to be prime minister. It wasn’t in my nature.’’
Of course Peacock did plot to be prime minister, mounting a 1989 party room coup to topple Howard as opposition leader.
Yet he sees a level of obsession, aggression and treachery in today’s politics — in Australia, US and around the world — that makes his era and his rivalry with Howard seem almost quaint.
“We had all sorts of fights but it seems to me so different to today,’’ he says. “They’re having brawls and fights with one another but there really seems to be a deep-seated hatred about it, whereas Howard and I never stopped talking to one another.
“We were in contact with one another a great deal. And so it didn’t surprise me really when I retired from politics and John became prime minister that he called me up and said: ‘I want you to go to Washington (as US ambassador)’.”
Peacock doesn’t pretend that politics in his day was always civil but says it was “conducted within proper bounds and I think that’s a big change”.
“Politics everywhere these days is more personal and destructive and negative; in the United States overwhelmingly, but you see it enacted also in so many other countries. In our small pool (in Australia) we might have been one of the last of the places where more respectful differences occur.”
Sorrow for Turnbull
Which is why Peacock was so surprised at and upset with his beloved Liberal Party when it staged its self-destructive leadership coup last year to depose Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister.
“I was very disappointed,” he says. “Apart from Malcolm being a friend, I genuinely thought he could turn things around.
“I know he was going through a difficult phase but I happened to be in that camp who thought he could make it, so I was disappointed.
“I’m hoping they can overcome things as they run down to the next election.”
Despite being out of politics for almost 25 years, Peacock’s heart still belongs to the Liberal Party and he hopes against hope it can win the coming election, despite polls that suggest otherwise.
He had dinner in Dallas recently with Foreign Minister Marise Payne and dined in Austin last week with former Liberal leader Alexander Downer.
“I was tremendously impressed with Marise Payne’s views (on the Coalition’s election prospects),” Peacock says. “She said: ‘I will not allow any negativity to intrude in my mind, I am giving it my all.’ I thought to myself: ‘That’s the girl!’.
“Every time I read a critical piece on the government, I think to myself: ‘Forget about it, fellas, just keep on going. You may well do it. Don’t lose the faith’.
“I don’t know Scott Morrison well and the task is ahead of him but he’s trying to get on with it. I wish him well.”
American life
Australian and US flags fly at the entrance to Peacock’s Austin home overlooking the Colorado River, which he shares with his third wife, Penne, a businesswoman, former US ambassador, former Texas beauty queen and a staunch Republican.
The pair moved to Austin from Sydney in 2007 after Peacock retired as the chairman of Boeing Australia.
“Moving to Austin was primarily to repay (Penne) for her loyalty in coming down to Australia for nine or 10 years,’’ he says. “I thought it was only fair to come back for nine or 10 years and now it’s got to the stage where we are staying here.
“I miss Australia. I love Australia and the fact is I am Australian, so I like getting back as much as I can … I also like it here in Austin, but it’s not Australia.’’
Peacock returns home about three times a year. He celebrated his 80th birthday on February 13 with a quiet family dinner at their Austin home with two of his three daughters and Penne’s children.
Peacock has divested himself of all his business interests. He jokes that his main job now is to walk their labrador, Butters, but he still breeds racehorses and thoroughbreds in Australia and in England, where his daughter Jane is a successful racehorse trainer.
Trump era
He also keeps a keen eye not only on Australian politics but also on US politics in the age of President Donald Trump.
Scattered around Peacock’s home are reminders of his remarkable relationships and friendships with US presidents, going back to Jimmy Carter.
There are photos of himself with Bill and Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office, and with George W. Bush and his wife, Laura. There is one of Peacock and his “great mate”, the late Democrat senator Teddy Kennedy.
But the one he is most proud of is the photo of himself with former president George HW Bush, with whom Peacock enjoyed a close friendship over decades.
They exchanged handwritten letters for years.
“He was a wonderful human being, a really rounded, terrific guy,’’ says Peacock, who attended Bush’s recent funeral. It was Bush who suggested that Peacock first meet with Penne, who had chaired Bush’s inauguration.
Peacock has met Trump just once, at a cocktail party years ago. Trump, who was planning to visit Australia for several days, asked Peacock whether he should spend it in Sydney or Melbourne. Peacock, a Melbourne boy, told him Sydney.
“Five weeks later I got a handwritten note from Trump saying he thought Sydney was fabulous and thanks for recommending it,’’ Peacock says.
So what is his assessment of America’s unorthodox President after just more than two years in the Oval Office?
“Well, I’m used to him now,’ Peacock says. “The point is that Trump is different and in that first year, you know, he would argue with Malcolm (Turnbull) and was disruptive to other allies and so forth, but that’s who we’ve got to work with, so that’s that.’’
Peacock, who was Australia’s ambassador to Washington from 1996 to 1999, sensed much earlier than most that Trump was likely to win the US election. He placed a bet on him at long odds with Ladbrokes and won many thousands of dollars on election night.
“I had mixed feelings when he won because I had served during the Clinton period, so I know the Clintons well and I have a profound regard for both of them,” he says. “I had a greater respect for Hillary than she seems to get these days, but I’m not an American. I didn’t have to vote.’
He says he respects the fact that Trump has “carried out his program” by seeking to implement his election promises. He also says the US-Australia alliance has remained solid under Trump.
“I have mixed feelings about him but it does not in any way qualify the strength of the US alliance. From my perspective it underlines our foreign policy,” he says. “Trump has been disruptive on the international stage, where I’m not sure he always weighs up the consequences of his statements or his actions.’’
But Peacock gives Trump “full marks” for his risky engagement with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, despite the collapse of their summit in Hanoi.
“I’m sceptical about how far they will get — this is not a regime that embraces the rest of the world — but it’s worth the endeavour,’’ he says.
Peacock says the President has a solid chance of re-election next year and senses a “lack of realism” among Trump-haters about his prospects for a second term.
“He has been sitting on 40-plus per cent (approval rating) and that makes him a very viable contender in the American system.
“I think he is in with a chance … The Democrats haven’t got hold of their process yet. It would be quicker for them to name who is not running (for president).”
Mellowing elder
Peacock is not given to self-reflection, but he says age has mellowed him and made him more tolerant. He is happily married and content with his achievements and his life. He says his best friend is his former partner and actress Shirley MacLaine and the two talk on the phone regularly.
“I was a bit arrogant and therefore a bit intolerant when I was younger,’’ he says. “Some people get crankier as they’ve got older but I seem to have got more even-tempered. I think I have become — as one would hope — perhaps a little more tolerant and perhaps a little wiser.’’
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