After completing National Service in 1956 he was a part-time officer in the Citizen Military Forces before joining the regular Australian Army in 1964.
McLean resigned from the army in 1974 and worked as a social planner in Gosford under the Whitlam government's Australian Assistance Plan.
[2] On 12 February 1991, he was prevented by the President of the Senate from tabling sensitive sub-judice documents on the Westpac foreign loans controversy.
On 7 March, the President informed the Senate that the documents in question had been ordered to be published by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration, that the Managing Director of Westpac Banking Corporation had indicated to the Committee that the bank would not contest the action to have the injunctions removed, and that in view of these developments, the ruling of 12 February was no longer operative.
[3] He resigned his Senate seat on 22 August 1991,[4] in protest against an internal party coup to depose the leader Janet Powell, and was replaced by Karin Sowada.