Guilfoyle, Dame Margaret (1926-2020), was a leading Australian politician. She was a Liberal senator for Victoria in the Australian federal Parliament from 1971 to 1987 and a Cabinet minister from 1975 to 1983. She was minister for education briefly in 1975, minister for social security from 1975 to 1980, and minister for finance from 1980 to 1983.
Margaret Georgina Constance McCartney was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on May 15, 1926. She immigrated to Australia with her family in 1928. In the mid-1940’s, she became a qualified accountant. She married Stanley M. L. Guilfoyle in 1952. The couple had three children. Margaret Guilfoyle was elected to Parliament in 1970 and took office in 1971. She retired from politics in 1988 and later served on the boards of a number of institutions.
Guilfoyle was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1979 and appointed a Commander of the Order of Australia in 2005. Dame Margaret Guilfoyle died on Nov. 11, 2020.
