Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Maxine...


"...you're not the only one to take the whole world on..."

The photo is by Lorrie Graham, the lyrics are by Sharon O'Neil. The single was a big hit in Australia in 1983 and curiously Maxine McKew herself once told her colleagues she had never heard of it.

I have eulogised about my colleague of two or so decades here.

A leading ABC television journalist, she was a foreign correspondent and then chucked it in to work Channel 10.

As she told me once "I am a gypsy"...

Then, reversing the usual order of things, she dived into radio as the Chief Political Correspondent for the ABC programs AM and PM in Canberra, which was where we met.

And then dived into business reporting - another new horizon - setting up the new ABC business program The Bottom Line with Max Walsh, taking me with her.

Made host of Lateline after the business show collapsed, after a year or so she set off instead for print - another new horizon - joining The Bulletin magazine.

She continued presenting Lateline on Friday nights and filling in for Kerry O'Brien on The 7.30 Report and then approached ABC radio about working with me on an interview program - Sunday Profile.

More than enough new horizons for most lifetimes... but not Maxine's.

Anyone who says she won't be a success as a politician doesn't know Maxine.

And I am thrilled to.