Australian Dictionary of Biography

Malcolm Kenneth McIntosh

CSIRO

Malcolm Kenneth McIntosh (1945–2000), public servant, was born in Melbourne on 14 December 1945, second of three sons of Sydney-born Kenneth Stuart McIntosh, army veterinary officer, and his Victorian-born wife Valerie, née MacKenzie. Raised in Canberra where his father was Commonwealth chief veterinary officer, Malcolm was educated at Telopea Park High School, excelling at maths, science, and swimming. He studied physics at the Australian National University (PhD, 1971), and in his research used the university’s large free-piston shock tunnel to simulate chemical effects on hypersonic vehicles re-entering the earth’s atmosphere after space flight. At the ANU he met his future wife, New South Wales-born Margaret Beatrice Stevens (BA Hons, 1975). On 23 January 1971 they married in the Methodist church, Bathurst, New South Wales.

In 1970 McIntosh began work as a research scientist at the Weapons Research Establishment at Salisbury, South Australia. Having previously been selected for national service, he carried out full-time duty in the Australian Regular Army Supplement from April 1972 to December 1973. Commissioned (October 1972) in the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, he performed staff duties at Army Headquarters, Melbourne. He subsequently served in the active (1973–84) and inactive (1984–92) Army Reserve, rising to temporary major (1974). His public service career progressed through the Federal Department of Labour and Immigration (1974–77), the Industries Assistance Commission (1977–78) and the Department of Productivity (1978–80). He was secretary to the 1979 independent Committee of Inquiry into Technological Change in Australia. Through the 1980s he filled increasingly senior positions in the Department of Defence, and in 1988–90 was deputy secretary overseeing acquisitions and logistics. In this role he was responsible for major procurements, including planning for the ANZAC frigate and Collins-class submarine projects. A tough and astute bureaucratic operator, he did not shy from controversy, speaking frankly before Senate estimates committees.

McIntosh was appointed secretary of the Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce in July 1990. He substantially restructured the organisation to streamline administration and improve relations with business, before the British Ministry of Defence recruited him as chief of defence procurement in 1991. There he directed reforms arising from the 1994 Defence Costs Study, also known as Front Line First, and among many highly classified projects oversaw the British nuclear weapons program. In 1996 he was awarded a British knighthood, and the United States Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

In August 1995 McIntosh had accepted the job of chief executive of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) but was diagnosed with renal cancer in October, necessitating the removal of both kidneys and dialysis three times a week. Nevertheless, he returned to Canberra and started work in February 1996; he was welcomed as a charismatic and personable leader bringing outstanding knowledge, expertise, and contacts to the organisation. He reduced bureaucratic layers and built stronger links with industry to expand the commercial potential of the CSIRO research program. Concurrently he headed government reviews, including the 1997 Defence Efficiency Review, and (with John Prescott) the 1999 Collins class submarines review. He wrote prolifically about science and discovery for the Australian Financial Review and the CSIRO.

McIntosh believed administrative structures should be allowed to evolve, and that the CSIRO should undertake both pure and applied scientific research. He also understood that the agency’s scientific expertise alone was not sufficient to fulfil its role, and was keen to pursue commercial opportunities, arguing that the organisation had ‘to sell its product, and you’ve got to have people at the top with those skills’ (Grose 1995, 44). For him, it was important that Australians saw the benefits of their public investment in research and development, and understood science’s contribution to society, the economy, and the environment.

Throughout his career, McIntosh displayed a rare gift for communicating scientific ideas in accessible language. His particular talents served him well in managing and restructuring large and complex systems, negotiating with representatives of high-technology industries, and gaining the trust of senior politicians. Appointed AC in January 1999, he was a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. He died of complications of chronic renal failure at Parkwood, Melbourne, on 7 February 2000, and his ashes were interred at the Memorial Park crematorium, North Altona. Six hundred people attended a memorial service in the Great Hall at Parliament House, Canberra. He was survived by Margaret and their four children, Stuart, James, Lucy, and Charles. The Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year is awarded annually as one of the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science, and in 2001 the CSIRO established an annual public lecture series in his memory.