The colt who almost became prime minister

Andrew Peacock was a serious politician who almost became prime minister, but never shook off his playboy image.

He was the Colt from Kooyong, the Gucci Kid who dallied with actress Shirley MacLaine, and the souffle who couldn’t rise twice.

Moreover, his corrosive rivalry with John Howard was a major factor in keeping the Liberals out of office for most of the 1980s.

Yet he was an architect of Papua New Guinea’s independence, an able foreign minister and, during his two periods as opposition leader, twice ran Bob Hawke close at the polls.

Andrew Sharp Peacock AC, who has died in the US aged 82, was born in Melbourne on February 13, 1939.

His father, an engineer with a ship repair business, and his mother, a fashion house buyer and designer, met on a cruise to the US and married in San Francisco.

He had an upper middle class Melbourne upbringing – Scotch College and law at Melbourne University.

Peacock joined the Liberals as a teenager and in 1961, while still at university, ran against Jim Cairns, Labor’s darling of the left, and cut his majority.

In 1965 he became the youngest president of the Victorian Liberal Party and the following year replaced the retiring Robert Menzies in the seat of Kooyong.

By then he was married to Susan Rossiter, a daughter of the Victorian Liberal establishment.

Peacock became army minister in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam war, making him the youngest federal minister to that point.

However there were soon tensions with Malcolm Fraser who, as defence minister, was his portfolio superior.

As external territories minister he struck up a close relationship with PNG’s young pro-independence leader Michael Somare and encouraged constitutional change.

While Gough Whitlam’s victory in 1972 meant it was Labor that oversaw PNG’s final steps to independence, Peacock’s role in developing a largely self-governing administration under Somare as chief minister was a crucial intermediate step. Later the PNG government made him an honorary Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu (bird of paradise), its highest honour.

After Fraser became prime minister in 1975, Peacock was appointed foreign minister, a position he held for five years.

While he loved the job, he sometimes found Fraser difficult to work with.

He threatened to resign over his morally impeccable demand that Australia cease to recognise Pol Pot’s government in exile after the murderous regime had been thrown out of Cambodia by the Vietnamese.

During this period he and Susan divorced and Peacock became a conscientious single parent to their three daughters.

It was also then that Peacock’s romantic interests became the stuff of Hollywood-style celebrity gossip.

He was linked, sometimes tenuously, with various glamorous figures, including Princess Margaret.

Above all, there was MacLaine, with whom he had a very long, close and much-photographed relationship. The actress once said that he was the only man she knew who kept a Gucci toothbrush in his bathroom.

In 1983 he married Margaret St George, a union that lasted five years.

After the 1980 election, Peacock unsuccessfully challenged Phillip Lynch as deputy Liberal leader and was moved to industrial relations.

But after a row with Fraser and Lynch the following year he resigned and went to the backbench.

In 1982, faced with speculation that Peacock was organising a challenge, Fraser launched a pre-emptive strike.

At a special party room meeting, he had the very dry Howard replace Lynch and comfortably defeated Peacock for the leadership.

However before the end of the year Fraser brought him back as industry and commerce minister and, after his defeat by Bob Hawke in 1983, supported him over Howard for the opposition leadership. Peacock won 36-20, with Howard becoming his deputy.

When Hawke called an early election in 1984, Peacock was underdog. But he was generally thought to have out-campaigned Hawke and cut his margin.

He became nervous as Howard performed strongly and in 1986 attempted to remove his rival by running his mate John Moore for the deputy’s position.

Howard survived and Peacock, interpreting the result as a vote of no-confidence in him, quit. Howard took over.

Worse followed in 1987 when Howard sacked him from the frontbench.

Hawke beat Howard later that year. Howard repulsed Peacock’s challenge for the leadership but, in a fruitless attempt at unity, his rival was brought back as his deputy.

In 1989, with Howard languishing in the polls and unable to heal the schisms in the party, a secret coup was organised that installed Peacock back in the leadership.

The 1990 election should have been his moment. Hawke had lost his lustre and the economy was struggling but Peacock was narrowly defeated.

The Liberals turned to John Hewson but when he lost the “unloseable” 1993 election, Peacock used his influence to make sure Howard didn’t return to the leadership.

A year later he left politics, his departure easing the way for Howard’s return in 1995.

In 1997 Howard’s government appointed Peacock ambassador to the US.

In his three years there, Peacock became a society figure and celebrity column subject.

He was most proud of winning wavering Washington support for Australia’s role in East Timor.

After returning to Australia he threw himself into US-linked business ventures, became president of Boeing Australia and in 2002 married Penne Korth, a Texan with Republican connections.

He moved to Austin, the Texas capital, in 2007, to repay Penne for her loyalty in coming to Australia with him for years.

Peacock was handsome and charming but he didn’t have Howard’s absolute focus and enjoyed too many other things.

In 1991, a colleague said his priorities, in order, were: Shirley MacLaine, Essendon Football Club, Melbourne horse racing and its social world, the Liberal Party, and – finally – federal parliament.

When this list was put to him, he said it was just about spot on – except his most important priority was his daughters.