Journalism In 1947, McInnes left Sydney with his lifelong companion June (Julie) Turner (1924-2005). He moved to
Cairns to work as a journalist for
The Cairns Post, sharing a house with Murray Sayle who was also working on the newspaper at the time. In 1948 he left Australia for
Calcutta to become a deputy editor for one of India's oldest newspapers,
The Statesman. In 1952 he was promoted to editor of the Calcutta-based financial newspaper
Capital. In 1953 and 1954, he was also the permanent correspondent in India of the London-based Commonwealth journal of international affairs,
The Round Table. Following several extended trips to Europe, he moved permanently to France in 1955, living in
Paris and later in the
Fontainebleau area for ten years. He devoted his time to research and writing. In 1965 Neil McInnes returned to Australia to work for
The Australian Financial Review. He moved back to Paris at the end of 1966 when he took up the position of European editor of
The Wall Street Journal and
Barron’s Financial Weekly. He continued writing for
The Australian Financial Review and also wrote for
The Guardian.
Intellectual thought In the 1960s, McInnes started publishing scholarly articles on Marxist theory, critically examining the roots of the development of Marxism, notably in western European countries such as Germany and France. He focused much of his early work on studying the influence of
Georges Sorel on Marxist ideas. He regularly contributed articles on this topic to journals such as
Survey,
Encounter and
Politics. This was a time when a widespread effort was under way to challenge the post-war sympathies with the USSR of many Western intellectuals and fellow travellers, particularly among liberals and the non-Communist Left (notably through the
Congress for Cultural Freedom). In the 1970s during his time in Paris as a financial journalist, he wrote four respected books which provided an in-depth analysis on the development and theoretical underpinnings of the Communist parties of Western Europe and
Eurocommunism. He was close to a number of French neo-liberal intellectuals known for their opposition to Marxist ideology, notably
Jacques Rueff,
Raymond Aron and
Jean-Francois Revel, who considered that the battle against communism was also one of ideas.
Public service career In 1978, McInnes was recruited by
Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to become the Deputy Director (economic) of the newly created
Office of National Assessments (ONA), established to provide intelligence assessments on political, strategic and economic issues directly to the Prime Minister. It was reported that
Cyrus Vance recommended McInnes to Fraser for this appointment. In 1982 he was promoted to Head of Policy Coordination within the
Department of Defence, where his responsibilities included oversight of intelligence and security agencies. He was a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet between 1983 and 1986. In this capacity, he was closely involved in providing intelligence and security policy advice to Prime Minister
Hawke on both national and international matters. He accompanied the Prime Minister on official visits abroad, notably to the White House in February 1985. In 1986, McInnes became the inaugural
Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, a position he held until his retirement in September 1989. The creation of this office followed a recommendation by Mr Justice Hope in his Royal Commission reports on the intelligence and security agencies with respect to their accountability. In June 1989, McInnes was appointed a Member of the
Order of Australia (AM) for public service.
Later life Between 1990 and 2005, McInnes returned to his career observing and commenting on a range of topics relating to political philosophy and international relations. His articles were published in
Quadrant and
The National Interest. Between 1990 and 2008 McInnes was a consultant to the
Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), where he acted as
ombudsman. He retired from active public life in 2009 at the age of 85. He died in
Canberra in 2017 aged 92. == Bibliography ==