MP And Presidente? Lock It In Now, Eddie

by Anita Quigley - Daily Telegraph

Eddie Maguire is a millionaire. Now, it seems, he wants to be a politician.

To many in [New South Wales], Maguire is the Melburnian who hosts Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the AFL Footy Show and the odd Channel 9 "non-special" such as The National IQ Test.

Meanwhile, south of the border he is known as "Eddie Everywhere" or "El Presidente".

Aside from his television commitments he is president of Collingwood Football Club and runs Maguire Media with his journalist brother Frank – two boys from the very working class suburb of Broadmeadows done good.

So it is therefore apt that it's the Labor Party which is trying to recruit him for the next federal election.

But if he was to be elected, wouldn't it be just like having Paul "Fatty" Vautin as your Member of Parliament? I would think details such as, say, policy wouldn't be either's forte.

Yet Maguire responded to the rumours with all the lingo of an experienced MP, saying: "You don't rule anything out, but that doesn't mean you are ruling it in either."

With that sort of talk he's bound to go far in Canberra.

He was then quick to pull out the humble card, adding: "It's very gratifying that people might think you have something to contribute but at the moment it's not something that is on the radar. At the moment I think I can make a far better contribution to the community by doing things that I do away from politics."

It's more a case that Maguire has too much to give away by going into politics.

First and foremost he would have to walk away from both his beloved Collingwood Football Club and Channel 9.

Secondly, should he be banished to the backbench we might be lucky enough never to hear from him again.

As one senior sports journalist said: "The only thing stopping him from being a politician would be that he'd have to sign the pecuniary interest register.

"There's a level of accountability in Parliament – a concept foreign to Eddie."

Maguire is the only AFL club president who commentates – astonishingly – on his own team's games.

Needless to say, it is a conflict – but one he chooses to ignore.

However, it is one that fellow commentator Tim Lane, who refused to call Magpie games alongside the club president, saw when he briefly joined Channel 9's AFL commentary team in 2002.

Moreover, former Nine boss David Leckie agreed with Lane's request to have the stipulation written into his contract. But on the eve of the season's first Collingwood game, Lane rightly quit when told he was to be sharing the commentary box with Maguire.

The Packers wanted their big star calling the big games so it was a case of Lane or Maguire. Lane went.

Instead, Maguire now calls the games with Dennis Cometti which, as one senior AFL writer says, has backfired: "It's great because for years Cometti went unrecognised as a great caller but now he's next to Eddie, Cometti is finally being rightly considered the best caller in AFL."

The same journalist also says it's amazing how Maguire can justify the conflict. "But he's an end justifies the means kind of bloke. Maybe he would do well in politics. He's not a dill.

"He's a can-do sort of bloke just like [former Victorian Premier] Jeff Kennett was and a boofhead. There's plenty of boofheads in Canberra."

Another likens El Presidente Maguire to a benevolent dictator. "When Fremantle looked like going under he helped promote a blockbuster against Collingwood . . . there wasn't much of an upside in it for Collingwood. He just wanted to help Fremantle maximise the gates. He loves the game.

"Maguire staged a presser at Victoria Park [Collingwood's home ground] so the Melbourne media would take interest in the game. Eddie tried his best but [Mick] Malthouse [Collingwood's coach] wouldn't have tried a yard for them."

Benevolence aside, Maguire is shrewd. Despite now living in Toorak, Melbourne's wealthiest suburb, he was in the relaunch issue of The Australian Worker last year, which had fellow working-class lad Mark Latham on the cover.

In it, Maguire says he is still a member of the journalists' union the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance adding: "I think there's a massive role for unions in Australia."

I doubt that's a view shared by many of his current neighbours.

And as scary as it sounds, if every sad Collingwood fan – and there are hundreds of thousands of them out there – was to move to the seat the ALP would like to offer him, he'd easily pull it off.

After all, celebrities seem to be the new vogue in politics.

The key parties have managed to get former rock star Peter Garrett and multi-millionaire businessman Malcolm Turnbull to Canberra.

Then, of course, we have a Prime Minister who deep down really wants to be a sportsman.

Should Maguire make his way to the theatre of Question Time, it may be the first time in his life he's had to relinquish the title of the biggest ego.

After all, he'd be sharing Parliament with Malcolm Turnbull.