Media stalwart Ken Randall has died aged 88. Photo: NPC.
Australian media giant and former National Press Club president Ken Randall AM has died aged 88.
The longtime Canberra identity was at the forefront of many of the nation’s most significant political and news events over a career spanning six decades.
As a journalist, he worked across newspapers, magazines, radio and television.
He also served as a ministerial adviser to federal ministers.
Ken’s family informed the National Press Club club that he died peacefully on Monday night (6 January).
Mr Randall was a founding journalist member of the Australian Press Council and an officer of the Australian Journalists Association.
In a statement, the NPC described Mr Randall as being passionate about journalism and believing strongly in the role of the National Press Club.
“[He] made an immeasurable contribution to our success – serving for a record 22 years as the club’s president (19 years consecutively) and even longer as a member of the board and officer in an association spanning in excess of 50 years,” the statement said.
He was made Patron of the National Press Club in 2016.
He was also President of the International Association of Press Clubs in 2010/11.
“It is with great sadness that the National Press Club announces the death of its patron and former president Ken Randall,” the NPC said.
“Ken left an indelible imprint on Australian Journalism … He leaves a magnificent legacy. We will miss him.”
His early professional life began in Hobart before he moved between Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney, working initially as a journalist with the ABC.
A founding staff member of The Australian, Mr Randall worked as the paper’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent in Canberra, as features editor and associate editor in Sydney, as bureau chief in Melbourne and, finally, in Canberra again as The Australian’s political correspondent.
Subsequently, Ken worked as the Australian correspondent for the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Economist, Le Monde, Newsweek and The Far Eastern Economic Review as well, later in his career, as the Pacific correspondent for The Economist Intelligence Unit.
He was also editor and publisher of Pacific Report and Canberra editor of Business Review Weekly.
Ken also presented Order in the House – a weekly ABC program summarising parliamentary proceedings – for many years.
He worked with late press gallery veteran Rob Chalmers on the long-running Inside Canberra newsletter.
Mr Randall also hosted the first leaders debate in 1984 between Bob Hawke and Andrew Peacock.
He was press secretary to two ministers in the Whitlam Government, served as media and foreign policy adviser to Opposition Leader Bill Hayden and later worked as a consultant to the Chief of the Defence Force and Secretary of Defence.
He continued to work as a public relations and media consultant well into his final years.
In 1997, Mr Randall was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to journalism and public affairs.
In 2009, he was again recognised for his contribution to the profession by being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
National Press Club President Laura Tingle said the club’s thoughts and deepest sympathies are with Ken’s family, his former wife Helen, to whom he remained close, his son Tom, daughter Lindsey and stepson Christopher, to whom he was devoted.
“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,” Ms Tingle said.
“His immense contribution to steering the club through some tough times is something I have only really come to appreciate since following in his footsteps as president.”
There will be a memorial service for Mr Randall at the National Press Club of Australia on a date to be announced.
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