David Exel

David Exel reported on the Vietnam War during a three year stint in Singapore for the New Zealand Press Association. Exel was born in Canada, to a Kiwi mum and a Dutch dad. By 1971 he was hosting high profile current affairs show Gallery. He also did the first TV interview with comedy legend Fred Dagg (aka John Clarke) and helped coin Dagg's name. In 1975 Exel hit the news, after launching an unsuccessful campaign to elect Bill Rowling. He reinvented himself in public relations, mostly in Australia. Exel also did time on talkback radio, and on Melbourne TV station HSV-7. He died on 3 February 2000, at a beloved fishing spot near Sydney. 

I remember him sitting us down, saying, ‘I will probably never work as a journalist again. I feel in all my years as a journalist I’ve been an observer … now I cannot keep quiet. Audette Exel recalls the time her father told the family he was about to launch a campaign to elect Bill Rowling, over then Prime Minister Rob Muldoon, David Leser website, 3 June 2012