Veteran political journalist and ABC host Ken Randall dies aged 88

Political correspondent and former ABC television host Ken Randall, whose career reporting for newspapers, magazines, radio and television spanned six decades, has died aged 88.

The highly respected journalist was also the longest ever serving president of the National Press Club (NPC) in Canberra, a position he held for 22 years, before becoming patron from 2016 until his death on Monday evening.

A founding staff member of the Australian newspaper in 1964, the Tasmanian-born reporter initially worked for the ABC in Hobart, before moving between Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney.

At the Australian he was the newspaper’s inaugural defence and diplomatic correspondent, and later worked as the paper’s features editor, associate editor, Melbourne bureau chief and chief political correspondent. 

In 1971, Randall was among a group of journalists who accompanied then-opposition leader Gough Whitlam on his historic visit to China, and he later presented ‘Order in the House’ — a weekly ABC TV program summarising parliamentary proceedings. 

During his career he also served as a press secretary in the Whitlam government, and as a media and foreign policy adviser for opposition leader Bill Hayden, then later as a consultant to the Australian Defence Force chief and Defence secretary.

In a statement on Tuesday, the NPC said its former president left “a magnificent legacy” and expressed its condolences to his family, including former wife Helen to whom he remained close, as well as son Tom and daughter Lindsey and stepson Christopher. 

Current NPC president, and Chief Political Correspondent for the ABC’s 730 program, Laura Tingle paid tribute to her former colleague and highlighted his “immense contribution to “steering the Club through some tough times”. 

“Ken was literally the first person I ever worked with when I came to Canberra and he was a kind, generous and wise colleague to me and other young reporters,” she recalled.

While NPC president, Ken Randall also moderated Australia’s first televised election debate between then-prime minister Bob Hawke and opposition leader Andrew Peacock ahead of the 1984 federal election.

Although televised debates had occurred during US presidential campaigns since the 1960s, it took almost a quarter of a century for Australia to follow, and Randall later recalled that both leaders took “quite different approaches” to the historic encounter.

“Bob Hawke liked to play to the live audiences around him, and he did that quite effectively, but as far as the television audience was concerned Andrew Peacock just stared down the barrel of the television cameras when he answered anything and got his message out very effectively.”

“It was a novelty for everyone concerned, I suppose Bob Hawke and Andrew Peacock had had their share of exchanges in parliament but not like this – the rather more disciplined atmosphere of a television debate,” he told the ABC in a 2010 interview.

In 1997, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to Journalism and Public Affairs and two years later was recognised as a Member of the Order (AM).