Vale David Barnett OBE

David Barnett, who died in Canberra last month, was a lifelong journalist best known for his work as media adviser to Malcolm Fraser, initially when Fraser was Leader of the Opposition and subsequently for most of his prime ministership.

Barnett’s interest in current affairs and contemporary events never dimmed. In his late eighties he was still a Quadrant contributor, and he enlivened his local newspaper, the Yass Tribune, expressing his clearly stated political opinions in a regular Wednesday column.

A profile on the Tribune’s star columnist written ten years ago when he was eighty aptly described him thus: “He can appear stern but also has a clever wit about him and has a clarity with words that translates smoothly from his writing to general conversation.”

His last four articles for Quadrant in 2020 consisted of two book reviews, a hard-hitting critique of the French submarine deal and, of most historical significance, a detailed account of his experience as a member of the press corps on Gough Whitlam’s visit to Communist China in 1971. They provide a lens through which to view his life, career and conservative values.

In a review of Malcolm Turnbull’s memoirs published that year Barnett concluded that the best of the book was at the beginning: “the good parts detail his adventures as the invincible young lawyer who won case after case, which rather suggests both he and Australia might have been better off had he remained at the bar”.

In his article in the November issue, “Defending Australia with Lemons”, he turned his hand to defence, presciently and alliteratively torpedoing the decision to purchase non-nuclear submarines from France:

We don’t know what the French attack class would be capable of were they not being reworked for domestic political purposes into a misbegotten diesel-electric configuration that will be extraordinarily expensive, extremely vulnerable and almost entirely useless.

Barnett used a book review of Bridget McKenzie’s biography of Black Jack McEwen to castigate the post-McEwen decision to change the name of the rural political entity from Country Party to National Party.

The pick of the crop was the ironically headlined article “My Pioneering Role in Sino-Australian Relations”, in which Barnett describes Gough Whitlam’s history-making visit to China in 1971 and subsequent prime ministerial trips with Whitlam and Fraser.

The year 1971 was a turning point in Barnett’s career. Earlier that year Australian Associated Press opened its first bureau in the Canberra Press Gallery. With more than a decade of international news agency experience, Barnett was appointed as its bureau chief.

His start in journalism had begun in 1949 on the well-worn bottom rung as a copy boy at the afternoon newspaper the Sydney Sun. A year later he became a cadet journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald where he learnt the excellent shorthand for which he became noted.

Within a few years he had joined the Australian journalistic exodus to the United Kingdom. He went on to work for the world’s leading news agencies, including British Reuters and its French equivalent Agence France-Presse. His work took him to Europe, the Middle East and Japan. During this time he married his first wife Maureen, and their three children were each born in different parts of the world.

He taught himself French and in a respite from agency work he went to Kenya to train local journalists to run the colonial-era Daily Nation in time for independence. He loved the nickname he earned there, “Bwana Macho Iné” (big boss four eyes), due to his spectacles.

Barnett returned to Australia to work for Australian Associated Press in 1969. The decision by AAP to open a bureau in Canberra in 1971 was justified by the increasing amount of news being generated in the national capital. The post-Menzies Coalition government was creating daily headlines as it moved towards the end of its long run in power. This was matched by a Labor Opposition which looked increasingly likely to win the next election.

One of his first Canberra bureau assignments was the Whitlam China trip, which gave Barnett the chance to demonstrate his mettle. Thanks to his excellent shorthand and international experience, he could transcribe the conversation between Whitlam and Chou En-Lai word for word. His copy ran in full in Australian newspapers and around the world. Writing of this episode in Quadrant in words reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop, Barnett described his modus operandi in China:

China is a land united by its script but divided by many languages. Equipped with my portable typewriter and a scrap of paper on which was written for the benefit of a taxi-driver, “Take me to the central post office”, I hit the ground running and in a few minutes had my last story out of China on the wires.

Initially Barnett looked favourably on Whitlam and the Labor government but his view changed as the administration fell into disarray. In 1975 he formed the view that only the Opposition led by Malcolm Fraser could get the country back on the rails and he took the principled decision to offer his services.

His China experience proved decisive in gaining him the job:

When I applied to work for Malcolm Fraser the relationship with China was about the only question he asked me. I looked for the right words, and came up with: “If Ginger Meggs lives next door to Tiger Kelly, he doesn’t lean over the fence and shout abuse.”

Fraser was amused by the illustration, and clearly was of the same view. He hired me on the spot, and I became his first staff member.

The enormity of the task for which Barnett had volunteered soon became clear. His role was to be interlocutor between a Prime Minister who had no love of the media and a Canberra press who overwhelmingly thought of Fraser as a villain for deposing Whitlam. Steve Lewis, in his book on the National Press Club, Stand and Deliver, summarised the mutual animosity manifest at the press club luncheon Fraser addressed just before the 1975 election:

Journalists could barely conceal their disdain for Fraser, as they peppered him with questions from the floor. For his part, the man who would go on to win three elections and serve as prime minister for eight years did little to disguise his contempt for those members of the working press who asked him questions.

In fact, Fraser and the new government were lucky to have a journalist of Barnett’s seniority and experience offering his services. Such offers were rare on the conservative side of politics. Barnett built up the prime minister’s media office with the addition of two former ABC journalists, something unlikely to happen today.

Barnett brought in innovations he had picked up from overseas including the distribution of transcripts of prime ministerial utterances to prevent misquotation and the daily doorstop interview outside Parliament House which enabled Fraser to address issues quickly and effectively.

He saw his role as supporting government decisions and serving the prime minister. He believed his strong understanding not only of media but also of policy helped him fulfil those functions. Barnett’s heft was an important attribute. He stood only half a head shorter than the tall Fraser and the media knew his toughness and determination matched those of his boss.

The important role that media interlocuters have played for Liberal prime ministers is being increasingly recognised. Barnett is among the distinguished company who have shaped that role.

Barnett’s last major work was a biography of John Howard, co-written with his second wife, New South Wales politician and former journalist Pru Goward. Published in 1997, the Howard book was informed by Barnett’s first-hand experience of a prime minister’s office in action.

Barnett’s oft-stated wish was that he could die on his Yass River property where he gazed at his fine self-replacing herd of Angus cattle, and regaled former colleagues with his ever-sharp view of contemporary events and his extraordinary memory for events past. But this was not to be. Persistent mobility problems led to repeated hospitalisation in his final years and he died in Canberra’s Calvary Hospital on August 6.

Peter Sekuless is a former Canberra political consultant. Tony O’Leary was media adviser to Prime Minister John Howard