Malcolm Mackay

Who was Malcolm Mackay?

Malcolm George Mackay AM was an Australian politician and Minister for the Navy.

Mackay was born in Brighton, South Australia and educated at Adelaide Technical High School. During World War II he served in the Royal Australian Navy. After the war he earned a B.A. degree from the University of Sydney and a B.D. degree from the University of Melbourne. He obtained a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.

Mackay returned to Australia to be a Presbyterian minister. He was ordained and inducted to the Merbein-Wentworth parish on 1 July 1952, demitted 14 June 1954 and from 1954 until 1956, he was the Australian General Secretary for the World Council of Churches. In September 1956 he became the first Australian born minister at Sydney's Scots Church. He became the foundation Master of Basser College at the University of New South Wales in 1959. He was also one of the first prominent churchmen in Australia to pursue an active career on television. He monitored the Burning Question program on Channel 7 from 1957 until 1961 before moving to the ABC for the current affairs program Open Hearing.

Mackay was elected as the Liberal Party member for the House of Representatives seat of Evans from the 1963 election. He was Minister for the Navy from March 1971 until his defeat by Allan Mulder at the December 1972 election. Mackay was the founding president of the Association of Former Members of the Parliament of Australia, and he remained an executive member of the association until his death. He was assistant minister of the Scots Church, Melbourne, 1975–76 and 1982-84.