Ian McLachlan

The Honourable Ian McLachlan AO
Ian McLachlan (far left)
45th Australian Defence Minister
In office 1996–1998
Preceded by	Robert Ray
Succeeded by	John Moore
Personal details
Born	(1936-10-02) 2 October 1936
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia

Ian Murray McLachlan AO (born 2 October 1936) is an Australian landowner, former first-class cricketer, and former member of the Australian House of Representatives.

Early life

Born in North Adelaide, McLachlan was educated at St. Peter's College, Adelaide, where he first displayed his cricketing prowess, and Jesus College at the University of Cambridge.^[1]

He played 72 matches of first-class cricket for Cambridge University and South Australia between 1956 and 1964, scoring 3743 runs at an average of 31.72, with 9 centuries. Whilst completing his bachelor and masters in Law.^[2]

Professional life

His business career includes managing director of Nangwarry Pastoral Co. Pty. Ltd., deputy chairman of SA Brewing Pty. Ltd (1983–1990), director of Elders IXL Ltd. (1980–1990) and president of the National Farmers Federation (1984–1988). He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in January 1989 for "service to primary industry".^[3] He was a long term president (till 2014) of the South Australian Cricket Association.

Political life

McLachlan was the member for Barker from 1990 until 1998 when he retired. He was Federal Minister for Defence from 1996 to 1998.^[4]

There was an earlier attempt to get McLachlan into Parliament in the lead-up to the 1987 election. According to John Howard, then Opposition Leader, stated in 2014 that Liberal MP Alexander Downer had offered to stand aside from his seat of Mayo in favour of McLachlan but the offer was declined.^[5]

It was revealed in 2006 that McLachlan was present at a meeting between John Howard and Peter Costello, arranging a handover of power after one and a half terms if Howard was allowed to become opposition leader without challenge, and then won office from the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Howard later reneged on this deal, leading to controversy and public bickering between Prime Minister Howard and Treasurer Costello.^[6][7] The revelation was made by McLachlan himself and Howard later said in The Howard Years documentary series that he had decided to handover the Prime Ministership to Costello in 2006 but changed his mind as a result of the revelation of the deal. McLachlan therefore cost Costello his final opportunity to become Prime Minister.

References

South Australia squad – 1963-64 Sheffield Shield Competition
1 GB Brooks 2 Ian Chappell 3 K.G. Cunningham 4 Neil Dansie 5 Les Favell 6 Neil Hawke 7 BM Hurn 8 Barry Jarman 9 JC Lill 10 RG LLoyd 11 Ian McLachlan 12 RHD Sellers 13 Garfield Sobers