Ainsley gotto biography

Biography/History: Ainsley Gotto was born 1946 in Brisbane.
Ainsley Gotto (14 February 1946 – 25 February 2018) was an Australian public servant and entrepreneur, who was the private secretary to John Gorton.
Ainsley Gotto was an Australian public servant and entrepreneur, who was the private secretary to John Gorton, the Prime Minister of Australia in the late 1960s.

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Ainsley Gotto

by Ian Hancock

Connor Court Australia 2020

ISBN: 9781925826555

$49.95 (hb)

Reviewed by Paul Henderson

A very large number of books, both biographies and autobiographies, have been written about Australian federal politicians. However, not many books have been written about the people who work in Canberra. Three interesting ones are The Persuaders by James Garvey about political advertising, From Post Box to Powerhouse by Patrick Weller and Joanne Scott about one hundred years of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and The Gatekeepers by R A W Rhodes and Anne Tiernan, which covers 50 years of the chiefs of staff in the Prime Ministers Office.

Ian Hancock, has written an extremely informative biography of Ainsley Gotto principal private secretary to Prime Minister John Gorton – detailing her life before, during and after her time as a staffer in Canberra. The biography is thoroughly researched, and Hancock has made very good use of the extensive collection of the Gotto papers. This family collection is particularly useful about Ains

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Former high-profile Gorton staffer Ainsley Gotto dies aged 71

In 1968, at the age of 22, Ainsley Gotto was appointed to run then Prime Minister John Gorton's office. Her appointment as private secretary attracted heavy media attention, amid rumours that she and Mr Gorton were romantically involved.

Fifty years on, private documents donated by Ms Gotto to the National Archives of Australia prior to her death on Sunday, may shed some light on the historic rumours. She donated the documents in 2015 but asked that they not be made public until after her death.

Doctor Jenny Tilby Stock, a visiting research fellow in the politics department at the University of Adelaide, told SBS News the rumours have never been proven and were a distraction from Ms Gotto's many achievements.

"The press which was almost entirely male in those days was transfixed because she was very good-looking, very young but also very competent and they tend to forget that. They were very happy to follow them around and take lots of pictures and make all sorts of suggestion about Gorto

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Ainsley Gotto facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ainsley Gotto
Gotto in 1969
Born	(1946-02-14)14 February 1946 Annerley, Queensland, Australia
Died	25 February 2018(2018-02-25) (aged 72) Woollahra, New South Wales, Australia
Education	Canberra Technical College
Occupation	Public servant, secretary, stage actress, entrepreneur
Known for	Private secretary to Prime Minister John Gorton

Ainsley Gotto (14 February 1946 – 25 February 2018) was an Australian public servant and entrepreneur, who was the private secretary to John Gorton, the Prime Minister of Australia in the late 1960s.

Early life

Gotto was born in the Brisbane suburb of Annerley on 14 February 1946. Her parents were Sidney Gotto, a flight lieutenant in the Royal Australian Air Force, and his wife, Lesley Webster.

She lived with her parents and went to school in Melbourne, then lived in London before returning to Melbourne. In 1961, the family moved to Canberra, where Ainsley studied a secretarial course at Canberra Technical College, qualifying for her certificate with the high