 In retirement, McMahon devoted much of his time to working on his memoirs, which he planned to title "A Liberal View".They were rejected by six publishers, and reviewers (who included Barry Jones and Phillip Adams) considered them to be poorly written and overly detailed.In 1984, McMahon endorsed Bob Hawke and the Labor Party for re-election over the Coalition, which he said would not be ready for government for another four or five years.