Margaret Guilfoyle

Dame Margaret Georgina Constance Guilfoyle (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 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.

Guilfoyle joined the Liberal Party in the early 1950s.

She was mentored by Elizabeth Couchman and Senator Ivy Wedgwood, who encouraged her to seek leadership positions within the party's organisational wing.

In 1967, with their support, Guilfoyle was chosen as chairman of the state women's section and elected to the state executive.

She also served as a delegate to the federal council.

When Wedgwood announced her retirement, she endorsed Guilfoyle as her successor.

Guilfoyle won Liberal preselection for the Senate against 20 male candidates, and was elected from second place on the Coalition's ticket in Victoria at the 1970 half-Senate election.

Guilfoyle's first term in the Senate began on 1 July 1971.

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", while The Sunday Telegraph reported that she would be "looked upon by Australian housewives as their special friend in Canberra".

She in fact took pains to avoid being pigeonholed as a spokesperson for women.

According to her biographer, Margaret Fitzherbert, her choices of committee "reflected her professional interests and experience, and, in sidestepping committees that were overtly concerned with family issues, marked her apart from the women who had preceded her in parliament".

As part of the latter, in December 1973 she joined Ellis Lawrie and Bob Cotton in submitting a minority report that advocated the abolition of inheritance tax; their recommendations were eventually adopted almost a decade later.

In June 1974, Guilfoyle was appointed to Billy Snedden's shadow ministry as the Coalition spokesperson for the media.

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.

She supported Malcolm Fraser in the March 1975 leadership spill, and when he was successful, she was moved to the higher-profile education portfolio.

Following the dismissal of the Whitlam government in November 1975, Guilfoyle was appointed Minister for Education in Fraser's caretaker ministry.

That made her the first woman to hold a cabinet-level ministerial portfolio; she was the second woman appointed to cabinet, after Enid Lyons, and the second to be given a ministerial portfolio, after Annabelle Rankin.

In December 1975, following the Coalition's victory at the 1975 election, Guilfoyle was appointed Minister for Social Security in the second Fraser Ministry.

Her new portfolio was initially placed outside of cabinet, but she was reinstated in July 1976 after Ivor Greenwood's retirement.

According to Fraser, she "contributed significantly to cabinet debates ... she could be totally relied on and she could think for herself – she wasn't a captive to the bureaucracy".

In the social security portfolio, Guilfoyle was seen as skilful in balancing political and financial considerations.

She strongly resisted pressure to cut her department's budget, arguing that regular increases were needed simply to maintain existing programs.

She was re-elected in 1974, 1975, 1980 and 1983, retiring on 5 June 1987.

When she began her political career, she and Senator Nancy Buttfield were the only women in parliament.

There were no female members in the House of Representatives.

Guilfoyle was Australia's seventh female senator and the third from Victoria, after Wedgwood and Marie Breen.

Over the course of her career, an additional 19 women were elected to the Senate.

Soon after taking her seat, Guilfoyle joined the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Government Operations.