MICHAEL GORDON • 1955 — 2018 TRIBUTES Big heart Elegant pen A saltwater smile Wise with words Wild in the water Warm in the world Michael Gordon 14 August 1955 — 3 February 2018 COVER PHOTO: ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN • BACK COVER WORDS: THE HON. TED BAILLIEU Awards A service to celebrate the life of 1991 The Sunday Age 2003 Walkley Award, all media category, Journalist of the year. coverage of Indigenous Afairs. Michael Gordon 1998 Graham Perkin Australian 2006 Melbourne Press Club Quill Journalist of the Year, highly Awards, best feature in print. commended for a body of work. 2006 Graham Perkin Australian MC 1999 United Nations Association Media Journalist of the Year, Peace Prize, print category. for a series of reports on asylum seekers Jim Middleton being held on Nauru. 2000 United Nations Association Media Peace Prizes, print and promotion of 2007 United Nations Association Media WELCOME reconciliation categories, Peace Prize, promotion of reconciliation for a series of articles described by category (shared). Robyn Carter judges as “the closest thing to a 2007 Melbourne Press Club Quill masterpiece”. Awards, best columnist. SPEAKERS 2001 Queensland Premier’s Literary 2011 Walkley Book Award, fnalist, The Honourable Paul Keating Award, literary or media work for Bells: The Beach, The Surfers, The promoting public debate category, for Sarah Gordon and Scott Gordon Contest (Woolamai Publishing). Reconciliation: A Journey Sally Gordon and John Gordon (UNSW Press). 2011 United Nations Association Media Peace Prize, best print feature. Tony Trood and Di Purdue 2002 United Nations Association Media Peace Prize, promotion of reconciliation 2017 Walkley Award, most outstanding Simon Balderstone and Fergus Hunter category. contribution to journalism. Martin Flanagan Ali Mullaie Books Don Watson BLESSING A Question of Leadership: Paul Keating One For All: The Story of the Hawthorn Political Fighter (UQP) 1993; updated as Football Club, with Harry Gordon Tim Costello Paul Keating: A Question of Leadership (Wilkinson Publishing) 2009. (UQP) 1993; updated as Paul Keating: MUSICIANS Bells: The Beach, The Surfers, True Believer (UQP), 1996 The Contest (Woolamai Publishing) Paul Kelly Reconciliation: A Journey 2011. Sam Lawrence (UNSW Press) 2001. Playing To Win: Inside Hawthorn’s Freeing Ali: The Human Face of the Journey to an 11th Premiership Pacifc Solution (UNSW Press) 2005. (Slattery Media Group) 2014. We thank you for coming today Layne Beachley: Beneath the Waves, and contributing to the love in the room. with Layne Beachley (Random House) 2008, second edition 2009. After the service refreshments will be served. We hope to share a drink and a hug with you all. MICHAEL GORDON • 1955 — 2018 TRIBUTES incredibly generous on the rare occasions He was a terrifc political correspon- TRIBUTES The Herald and The Sun reporters turned dent and led the paper most weekends ORDERED ALPHABETICALLY the tables on him. with agenda-setting news breaks. His In 1987 we fnally got to work together political analysis was frst-rate too. when Michael agreed to become the When I became editor of The Sunday US correspondent for The Herald in Age in 1992 my frst move was to make Melbourne. (Now defunct, its name lives Michael the paper’s deputy editor. on today as one half of the Herald Sun He brought tremendous rigour to the Bruce Guthrie masthead.) role, demanding the best of our journal- THE NEW DAILY It was an enormous decision for him ists and curbing the worst instincts of the The impeccable Michael Gordon: because it meant leaving The Age where editor. A journalist’s journalist remembered he’d further enhanced his reputation And it was that integrity that defned with a move to Canberra. Michael. Not only in journalism, but all He proved to be a brilliant foreign his personal and professional relation- N 1973, IN THE FIRST WEEKS OF HIS words and the search for truth. Michael correspondent, understanding that the ships. He was incapable of deceit. And he cadetship at The Age, Michael Gordon read the frst and last paragraphs of his best of them write for the entire paper, adhered to the highest of principles, no I was sitting in a journalism class at Mel- key pieces to his father pretty much up to not just page one. matter what. bourne’s RMIT when the lecturer decided the day Harry died just three years ago. Michael would routinely fle stories Former Sunday Age sports editor, to read out one of his A+ assignments. Michael was a determined fact- that led all sections — news, business, Geof Slattery, summed it up best when He probably shifted uncomfort- checker, something that comes through features, sport, entertainment. He did he said of Michael: “The link was integrity ably in his seat at the prospect. Humble in the scores of tributes that have fowed it with ease and grace, even though he and honesty and, in journalism, that rare throughout what would become a stellar since his death, particularly from the and his wife Robyn — a book publishing capacity to never let personal views get 45-year career, Michael was shy to the many politicians he reported on in executive who Michael worshipped — in the way of the facts; even in his cam- point of awkwardness back then. Canberra and beyond. became frst-time parents soon after his paigns for indigenous rights and the rights Sitting a couple of rows behind the He would almost always ring his posting to New York. of asylum seekers, his personal view was then 17-year-old that day, I could only sources back and check that he had it (A music lover, Michael also discov- only to ensure the story was continued, marvel at the maturity of his work. right before sending his copy. He’d check ered singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman and then let the story tell itself.” Astonishingly, I can still recall some of tone too. Was the story pitched correctly? in a bar, long before the record companies In 1994 The Australian’s Paul Kelly the phrases he used in the piece. It was no surprise that key players did. But that’s another story.) lured Michael away from executive I wasn’t the only student in that class on all sides of politics talked to him He got the chance to return to life, back to Canberra. I understood the that day who realised they’d have to up willingly. His sources were impeccable Melbourne and The Age when it launched decision, even if hurt me — and The their game if they were going to make because he treated them impeccably. a Sunday edition in 1989. Again, happily, Sunday Age — to lose him. it in the profession. It would not be the It explained why, less than a decade we found ourselves working together, he His departure ended a seven-year run last time Michael would inspire me or an into his career, Michael was the leading in Canberra as the paper’s frst political of working together rather than at rival audience with his work. industrial relations journalist in the correspondent, me in Melbourne as organisations. We never did again. It’s a Michael, who we lost on Saturday in country at a time when Bob Hawke was deputy editor. time I’ll treasure even more now. the waters of Phillip Island at just 62, on the rise and the union movement was Michael earned his entire frst month’s Michael would go on to earn his place was a natural from the get-go. This prob- at its peak. salary with a single master stroke: he at the very highest levels of Australian ably had more than a little to do with As an industrial reporter myself, somehow convinced then prime minister journalism, winning plaudits and being the son of legendary Melbourne I witnessed his excellence at close Bob Hawke and his deputy Paul Keating honours along the way. He deserved journalist and editor, Harry Gordon. quarters because in those days we shared to pose together for our launch issue, every single one of them. They shared a unique personal and the same digs at Carlton’s Trades Hall. despite the enmity between them. The When he retired just eight months professional bond built on a love of Michael bested us most days but was resultant page one was museum quality. ago, we dined with our wives at a mod- 2 3 MICHAEL GORDON • 1955 — 2018 TRIBUTES est restaurant in the Melbourne suburb Late in the night, he admitted to some for a morning surf. I remember noticing there to see my achievements and share where we both lived. We refected on nervousness at what lay ahead given a long time ago that, for some reason, the happy moments in life once I am free lives and careers that had been kind to us the state of our industry: Journalism I had inadvertently adopted some of and live in peace.” and looked to the future. was struggling and newspapers were in his mannerisms — mainly this kind of That paragraph just about fnishes me Michael and Robyn had become undoubted decline. precise slicing action when making of. grandparents for the frst time almost a We consoled ourselves by acknowl- a point. I’m not sure if I still do it. In At Harry’s funeral in 2015, Les Carlyon year ago, after their daughter Sarah had edging that the Class of ’73 had been more recent years, there was the honour and said the great man “could scold in print presented them with a grandson, named fortunate than most. The golden age of joy of working with him. It was poetry without being mean”. Just one of the after Harry. Their son Scott is an aid newspapers had allowed us to catch waves to add that texture to our relationship.