Michael MacKellar

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Michael MacKellar bigraphy, stories - Australian politician

Michael MacKellar : biography

27 October 1938 –

Michael John Randal MacKellar, AM (born 27 October 1938) is an Australian politician and was the Liberal Member for Warringah from 1969 until 1994. He is the current president of the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI), Melbourne, Australia.

MacKellar was born in Sydney and was an agricultural scientist before he entered politics. He was first elected to Parliament in 1969, taking over from the controversial Edward St. John. In December 1975, MacKellar was first appointed to the front bench to the new porfolio of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, a position he held until 1979, when he became Minister for Health and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister. In Opposition, MacKellar acted as Shadow Minister for Science.

MacKellar attracted some controversy over his handling of an incident involving the improper importation of a colour television set. In 1982, a ministerial staffer submitted an incorrect customs declaration form when arranging for the set to be imported. When this was discovered, a fellow Minister, John Moore, attempted a cover-up. Moore and MacKellar both accepted responsibility and resigned as Ministers.

MacKellar resigned from Parliament on 18 February 1994, causing a by-election that was subsequently won by Tony Abbott. Also retiring at the same time as Mackellar was his Liberal colleague Jim Carlton. Carlton resigned from his seat and his seat is coincidentally called Mackellar. Due to Michael Mackellar having the same name as that of the seat of Mackellar, in one of Michael Mackellar’s last days in Parliament, then Prime Minister Paul Keating mistakenly referred to him as the Member for Mackellar.

In 1998 he became Chairman of the Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA). He has also acted as Chief Operations Officer of the Baker Medical Research Institute and Chief Executive Officer of the Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association.