Leader of the Opposition (Tasmania)
The Leader of the Opposition in Tasmania is the title of the leader of the largest minority party in the state lower house, the Tasmanian House of Assembly. He or she acts as the public face of the opposition, leads the opposition on the floor of parliament, they thus act as a chief critic of the government and attempt to portray the opposition as a feasible alternate government. They are given certain additional rights under parliamentary standing orders, such as extended time limits for speeches. Should the opposition win an election, the Leader of the Opposition will be nominated to become the Premier of Tasmania; the position of Leader of the Opposition was informal throughout the nineteenth century, with formal recognition only being granted in the early twentieth century. As there was no party system until 1909, the loose ideological blocs in parliament tended to change and few people lasted in the position for more than one or two years at a time; the development of a party system gave the role greater significance, it was subsequently given greater formal recognition, with an additional salary payment being accommodated for in 1927 and formal recognition in the parliamentary standing orders in 1937.
The current Leader of the Opposition is Rebecca White of the Labor Party. She has been in the role since 17 March 2017, having been elected unopposed after the resignation of Bryan Green. Leaders of the Opposition
Rupert Hamer
Sir Rupert James Hamer, AC, KCMG, ED known until he was knighted in 1982 as Dick Hamer, was an Australian Liberal Party politician who served as the 39th Premier of Victoria from 1972 to 1981. Dick Hamer was born in Melbourne to a solicitor, his three siblings all achieved success in their fields: his sister was Alison Patrick, an internationally known historian of the French Revolution. Dick Hamer was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and Geelong Grammar School and graduated in law from the University of Melbourne, where he was resident at Trinity College from 1936, he was a member, with his brother Alan, of the College First XVIII Australian Rules football team, was Secretary of the Student Club. He joined the Melbourne University Regiment of the Australian Army in 1935 and served with them until 1939, he was commissioned as an officer in August 1940 in 2nd/43rd Battalion AIF and served at Tobruk, Syria, El Alamein, New Guinea and in Normandy. After the war he was active in the Liberal Party.
In 1944 he married April Mackintosh. He continued his military service and remained active in the Citizens Military Force joining the Victorian Scottish Regiment in 1948, of which he was Commanding Officer from 1954 to 1958. Hamer was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for East Yarra Province in 1958, he was appointed to the cabinet of the long-serving Premier, Henry Bolte, in 1962, becoming Assistant Chief Secretary. He was Minister for Local Government from 1964 to 1971. After Deputy Premier Arthur Rylah was forced to retire due to a stroke, Hamer was elected in a by-election for Rylah's Legislative Assembly seat of Kew in East Melbourne, he assumed Rylah's portfolios of Deputy Premier and Chief Secretary. Although he was loyal to Bolte, he had a reputation for being much more liberal than his rough-edged conservative leader. By the 1970s, the Liberal government was losing its appeal to younger, urban voters in Melbourne. Realizing that the Liberals had a year at most to retool their image before a statutory general election, Bolte retired in 1972 and endorsed Hamer as his successor.
Despite opposition from the conservative wing of the party, Bolte's support was enough for Hamer to prevail in the ensuing leadership ballot, he was sworn in as premier on 23 August. Hamer represented such a sharp change from the Bolte era that he was able to campaign in the 1973 election as a new, reformist leader, despite the fact that the Liberals had been in power for 18 years. Employing the slogan "Hamer Makes It Happen", he won a landslide against the Labor opposition under Clyde Holding, increasing his party's large majority, he won an larger victory in 1976 defeating Holding. Hamer, assisted by key allies such as Planning Minister Alan Hunt, Conservation Minister Bill Borthwick, Attorney-General Haddon Storey, Social Welfare Minister Vasey Houghton and Youth Sport and Recreation Minister Brian Dixon and Community Welfare Services Minister Walter Jona moved to modernise and liberalise government in Victoria. Environmental protection laws were strengthened, the death penalty was abolished, Aboriginal communities were given ownership of their lands and homosexuality were decriminalised and anti-discrimination laws were introduced.
Hamer began the modernisation of Melbourne's moribund tramway system, ordering 100 new trams with further orders following, approving the extension of the Burwood tram line from Warrigal Road to Middleborough Road. These were the first new trams and first new tram line since 1956, when Bolte stopped further expansion of the system and cancelled an order for 30 extra W7 class trams. Restrictions on shop trading hours, on public entertainment on Sundays, were eased. A major new centre for the performing arts was built in the centre of Melbourne; these measures won the support of middle-class voters, the Melbourne daily The Age, critical of Bolte during his years in power supported Hamer's government. Hamer was instrumental in the introduction of the Historic Buildings Act 1974 and made significant moves in 1977 which guaranteed the protection of several significant buildings including the Windsor Hotel and Regent Theatre in Melbourne and Shamrock Hotel in Bendigo. By 1979, the gloss was wearing off the Hamer image, as Victoria was beset by increasing economic difficulties, rising unemployment, industrial unrest and a decline in Victoria's traditional manufacturing industrial base.
At the same time, the Labor Party was mounting a stronger challenge to the Liberals than it had in some time. Frank Wilkes had taken over as ALP leader from Holding in 1977, took Labor into the 1979 election with a realistic chance of winning government for the first time since 1955; the Liberals suffered an 11-seat swing, losing many seats in eastern Melbourne. Their majority was reduced to only one seat, although they could count on the support of the rural-based National Country Party. In spite of the setback, Hamer continued in office, he promoted some new younger ministers such as Lou Lieberman, Norman Lacy and Jeff Kennett who continued to pursue a reformist liberal agenda in human services, environment protection and the arts. It reformed the administration of the centralised Department of Education in Victoria into a regionalised organisation with devolution of greater control to
Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, was an Australian politician. He was the longest-serving and longest-lived Premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987, during which time the state underwent considerable economic development, his uncompromising conservatism, his political longevity, his leadership of a government that, in its years, was revealed to be institutionally corrupt, made him one of the best-known and most controversial political figures of 20th century Australia. Bjelke-Petersen's Country Party controlled Queensland despite receiving the smallest number of votes out of the state's leading three parties, achieving the result through a notorious system of electoral malapportionment that resulted in rural votes having a greater value than those cast in city electorates; the effect earned Bjelke-Petersen the nickname of "the Hillbilly Dictator". Yet he was a popular figure among conservative voters and over the course of his 19 years as premier he tripled the number of people who voted for his party and doubled the party's percentage vote.
After the Liberals pulled out of the government in 1983, Bjelke-Petersen reduced his former coalition partners to a mere six seats in an election held that year. In 1985 Bjelke-Petersen launched a campaign to move into federal politics to become prime minister, though the campaign was aborted. Bjelke-Petersen was a divisive premier and earned himself a reputation as a "law and order" politician with his repeated use of police force against street demonstrators and strongarm tactics with trade unions, leading to frequent descriptions of Queensland under his leadership as a police state. From 1987 his administration came under the scrutiny of a royal commission into police corruption and its links with state government ministers. Bjelke-Petersen was unable to recover from the series of damaging findings and after resisting a party vote that replaced him as leader, resigned from politics on 1 December 1987. Two of his state ministers, as well as the police commissioner Bjelke-Petersen had appointed and knighted, were jailed for corruption offences and in 1991 Bjelke-Petersen, was tried for perjury over his evidence to the royal commission.
Bjelke-Petersen was born in Dannevirke in the southern Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand, lived in Waipukurau, a small town in Hawke's Bay. The Australian Bjelke-Petersen family are of Swedish descent. Bjelke-Petersen's parents were both Danish immigrants, his father, was a Lutheran pastor. In 1913 the family moved to Australia, establishing a farm, "Bethany", near Kingaroy in south-eastern Queensland; the young Bjelke-Petersen suffered from polio. The family was poor, Carl Bjelke-Petersen was in poor health. Bjelke-Petersen finished formal schooling at age 14 to work with his mother on the farm, though he enrolled in correspondence school and undertook a University of Queensland extension course on the "Art of Writing", he taught Sunday school, delivered sermons in nearby towns and joined the Kingaroy debating society. In 1933, Bjelke-Petersen began work land-clearing and peanut farming on the family's newly acquired second property, his efforts allowed him to begin work as a contract land-clearer and to acquire further capital which he invested in farm equipment and natural resource exploration.
He developed a technique for clearing scrub by connecting a heavy anchor chain between two bulldozers. By the time he was 30, he was businessman. Obtaining a pilot's licence early in his adult life, Bjelke-Petersen started aerial spraying and grass seeding to further speed up pasture development in Queensland. After failing in a 1944 plebiscite against the sitting member to gain Country Party endorsement in the state seat of Nanango, based on Kingaroy, Bjelke-Petersen was elected in 1946 to the Kingaroy Shire Council, where he developed a profile in the Country Party. With the support of local federal member and shire council chairman Sir Charles Adermann and Sir Frank Nicklin, he gained Country Party endorsement for Nanango and was elected a year at age 36, going on to give regular radio talks and becoming secretary of the local Nationals branch, he would hold this seat, renamed Barambah in 1950, for the next 40 years. The Labor Party had held power in Queensland since 1932 and Bjelke-Petersen spent eleven years as an opposition member.
On 31 May 1952, Bjelke-Petersen married typist Florence Gilmour, who would become a significant political figure in her own right. In 1957, following a split in the Labor Party, the Country Party under Nicklin came to power, with the Liberal Party as a junior coalition partner; this was a reversal of the situation at the national level. Queensland is Australia's least centralised state. In these areas, the Country Party was stronger than the Liberal Party; as a result, the Country Party had been the larger of the two non-Labor parties, had been senior partner in the Coalition since 1925. In 1963 Nicklin appointed Bjelke-Petersen as minister for works and housing, a portfolio that gave him the opportunity to bestow favours and earn the loyalty of backbenchers by approving construction of schools, police stations and public housing in their electorates. At various times, he served as acting minister for education, police and Island Affairs, local government and conservation and labour and industry.
He would serv
Premier of Victoria
The Premier of Victoria is the Head of government in the Australian state of Victoria. The Premier is appointed by the Governor of Victoria, is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Legislative Assembly. Responsible government came to the colony of Victoria in 1855. Between 1856 and 1892, the head of the government was called the Premier or the Prime Minister, but neither title had any legal basis; the head of government always held another portfolio Chief Secretary or Treasurer, for which they were paid a salary. The first head of government to hold the title of Premier without holding another portfolio was William Shiels in 1892; the incumbent Premier of Victoria since the 2014 election is Daniel Andrews of the Australian Labor Party. As of 7 April 2019, six former premiers are alive, the oldest being John Cain Jr.. The most recent Premier to die was Joan Kirner, on 1 June 2015. Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria Deputy Premier of Victoria List of Premiers of Victoria by time in office ABC News – Premiers of Victoria
Garfield Barwick
Sir Garfield Edward John Barwick, was an Australian judge, the seventh and longest serving Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1964 to 1981. He had earlier been a Liberal Party politician, serving as a minister in the Menzies Government from 1958 to 1964. Barwick was born in Sydney, attended Fort Street High School before going on to study law at the University of Sydney, he was called to the bar in 1927 and became one of Australia's most prominent barristers, appearing in many high-profile cases and before the High Court. He served terms as the Law Council of Australia. Barwick entered politics only at the age of 54, winning election to the House of Representatives at the 1958 Parramatta by-election. Prime Minister Robert Menzies made him Attorney-General by the end of the year, in 1961 he was additionally made Minister for External Affairs. In 1964, Menzies nominated Barwick as his choice to replace the retiring Owen Dixon as Chief Justice. Over the next 17 years, the Barwick court would decide many significant constitutional cases, including a significant broadening of the corporations power and several cases regarding the constitutional basis of taxation.
Barwick played a small but significant role in the 1975 constitutional crisis, advising Governor-General John Kerr that it was within his powers to sack Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. He retired from the court at the age of 77, but remained a public figure until his death at the age of 94. Outside of his professional career, he served as the inaugural president of the Australian Conservation Foundation. Barwick was one of Cornish origin, he was raised in Stanmore, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, attended Fort Street High School. He graduated from the University of Sydney with a University Medal in law. A diligent student, Barwick was admitted to legal practice soon after finishing university, although he suffered in financial terms during the Great Depression, he was guarantor for a bank loan to his younger brother to operate a service station in Ashfield, but was unable to repay the bank when the loan was forfeited, was made bankrupt after he sued the oil companies for defamation. This was held against him by many throughout his career.
He practised as a barrister from 1927 in many jurisdictions, achieving considerable recognition and the reluctant respect of opponents. At the beginning of World War 2, Barwick's challenges to the National Security Act 1939, which centralised the power to the Australian government, propelled him to the front rank of the Bar, he became publicly prominent in the 1943 case over the artistic merits of William Dobell's Archibald Prize-winning portrait of the painter Joshua Smith. Barwick represented the plaintiff, although they lost, the judges commended him for the brilliance of his arguments and his name became well known from that point onwards. Having been briefed in many of Australia's defining constitutional cases, he was knighted in 1953. A famous example of his astute advocacy involved thirteen Malaysians sentenced to death who appealed to the Privy Council. Twelve retained Barwick, who duly found a technical deficiency in the arrest warrants and secured their freedom; the last, whose counsel was not so thorough, was hanged.
A member of the Liberal Party, Barwick was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1958 Parramatta by-election, beginning his parliamentary career at the late age of 54. He was re-elected in the general elections of 1958, 1961, 1963. After the 1958 election, Barwick was promoted to cabinet as Attorney-General, replacing the retiring Neil O'Sullivan. In that position, he guided through legislation amending the Matrimonial Causes Act and the Crimes Act, established a model for restrictive trade practices legislation, he gained public notice for his role in the case of an alleged Estonian war criminal, Ervin Viks, who had settled in Australia and was being pursued by the Soviet Union. Barwick refused to accept the USSR's extradition request, as there was no extradition treaty between the two countries. After the 1961 election, Barwick was additionally made Minister for External Affairs, he led the Australian delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations for its 15th, 17th, 18th sessions.
For some time, Barwick was seen as a successor to Robert Menzies as Liberal leader and prime minister. When the news broke that he was entering parliament, Frank Browne confidently wrote: For Harold Holt, it means no leadership. For the New South Wales Cabinet aspirants it means no Cabinet. All in all, to the Liberal Federal politicians, the entry of Sir Garfield Barwick means what the acquisition of a Derby winner means to the other stallions in the stud. Prosperity in the stud, but the first step towards the boiling down of the other stallions. However, Barwick struggled to adapt to the thrust of political life. There were reports that he was reduced to tears by a vitriolic debate over what would become the Crimes Act 1959, which he confirmed had been accurate. In retirement, Menzies said that he "didn't understand parliament he was a disappointing politician". An opinion poll in 1960 found that only three percent of the general public supported him as Menzies' replacement, he had little support from other Liberal MPs, speculation about his leadership prospects was medi
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. Elizabeth was born in London as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, she was educated at home, her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1947, she married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, with whom she has four children: Charles, Prince of Wales; when her father died in February 1952, she became head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ceylon. She has reigned as a constitutional monarch through major political changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation, the decolonisation of Africa. Between 1956 and 1992, the number of her realms varied as territories gained independence and realms, including South Africa and Ceylon, became republics.
Her many historic visits and meetings include a state visit to the Republic of Ireland and visits to or from five popes. Significant events have included her coronation in 1953 and the celebrations of her Silver and Diamond Jubilees in 1977, 2002, 2012 respectively. In 2017, she became the first British monarch to reach a Sapphire Jubilee, she is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch as well as the world's longest-reigning queen regnant and female head of state, the oldest and longest-reigning current monarch and the longest-serving current head of state. Elizabeth has faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the royal family, in particular after the breakdown of her children's marriages, her annus horribilis in 1992 and the death in 1997 of her former daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales. However, support for the monarchy has been and remains high, as does her personal popularity. Elizabeth was born at 02:40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King George V.
Her father, the Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, the Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfather's London house: 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. She was baptised by the Anglican Archbishop of York, Cosmo Gordon Lang, in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 29 May, named Elizabeth after her mother, Alexandra after George V's mother, who had died six months earlier, Mary after her paternal grandmother. Called "Lilibet" by her close family, based on what she called herself at first, she was cherished by her grandfather George V, during his serious illness in 1929 her regular visits were credited in the popular press and by biographers with raising his spirits and aiding his recovery. Elizabeth's only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930; the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford.
Lessons concentrated on history, language and music. Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret's childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family; the book describes Elizabeth's love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, her attitude of responsibility. Others echoed such observations: Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as "a character, she has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant." Her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved". During her grandfather's reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward and her father. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, as Edward was still young. Many people believed he would have children of his own; when her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, after her father.
That year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Elizabeth's father became king, she became heir presumptive. If her parents had had a son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession. Elizabeth received private tuition in constitutional history from Henry Marten, Vice-Provost of Eton College, learned French from a succession of native-speaking governesses. A Girl Guides company, the 1st Buckingham Palace Company, was formed so she could socialise with girls her own age, she was enrolled as a Sea Ranger. In 1939, Elizabeth's parents toured the United States; as in 1927, when her parents had toured Australia and New Zealand, Elizabeth remained in Britain, since her father thought her too young to undertake public tours. Elizabeth "looked tearful", they corresponded and she and her parents made the first royal transatlantic telephone call on 18 May.
In September 1939, Britain entered the Second World War. Lord Hailsham suggested that the two princesses should be evacuated to Canada to avoid the frequent aerial bombing; this was rejected by Elizabeth's mother. I won't leave wit
Bill Hayden
William George Hayden is a former Australian politician who served as the 21st Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1989 to 1996. He had earlier been leader of the Labor Party from 1977 to 1983, as well as serving as a cabinet minister in the Whitlam and Hawke Governments. Hayden was born in Queensland, he attended Brisbane State High School and joined the Queensland Police, working as a police officer for eight years while studying economics part-time at the University of Queensland. Hayden was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1961 federal election, aged 28; when Gough Whitlam led the Labor Party to victory in 1972, he was made Minister for Social Security. He replaced Jim Cairns as Treasurer in 1975, but served for only five months before the government was dismissed. In early 1977, Hayden challenged Whitlam for the party leadership and was defeated by just two votes, he succeeded Whitlam as Leader of the Opposition at the end of the year, following Labor's defeat at the 1977 election.
Hayden led the party to the 1980 election, recording a substantial swing but falling well short of victory. He was replaced by Bob Hawke after months of speculation. Hayden served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1983 to 1988 left parliament to assume the governor-generalship, he held that position for seven years, with only Lord Gowrie having served for longer. Born in Brisbane, Bill Hayden was the son of George Hayden, an Irish-American sailor from Oakland, 52 years old at the time of Bill's birth, his paternal grandparents were from County Cork and significant parts of his approach to social issues and politics throughout his public life reflected this background and non-denominational education at Brisbane State High School. A keen sportsman, he played rugby and rowed, served in the Australian Military Force, Navy as well as the Queensland Public Service and Police Force, he continued his education completing an economics degree at the University of Queensland. Prior to the 1970s, he was a self-described democratic socialist.
During the late 1950s he became active in the Labor Party. In the 1961 federal election he surprised everyone, including himself, by winning the House of Representatives seat of Oxley, located in southwest Brisbane, he ousted Don Cameron, the Minister for Health in the Menzies Liberal government, on a nine-point swing. Hayden's win was part of a 15-seat swing to Labor. Overcoming initial resistance to his membership of the Labor party he was admitted and was soon popularly elected as one of the youngest members of the federal parliament, Hayden proved to be a diligent, well-spoken parliamentarian. In 1969, he became a member of the Opposition front bench; when Labor won the 1972 election under Gough Whitlam, Hayden was appointed Minister for Social Security, in that capacity, among other efforts to promoting reform, introduced the single mothers pension and Medibank, Australia's first system of universal health insurance. On 6 June 1975, he succeeded Jim Cairns as Treasurer, a position he held until the Whitlam government was dismissed by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, on 11 November 1975.
Labor suffered its worst-ever defeat in the election held a month and Hayden was left as the only Labor MP from Queensland. When Labor lost the 1977 election in yet another landslide, Whitlam retired as leader and Hayden was elected to succeed him. Aged 44, he was the youngest person to be elected leader of the Labor Party since Chris Watson in 1901, his political views had become more moderate, he advocated economic policies which encompassed the private sector and the American alliance. Several opinion polls during early 1980 showed the ALP under Hayden neck-and-neck with, or ahead of, Fraser's administration. At the 1980 election. Labor finished a mere 0.8 percent behind Fraser's government on the two-party vote, having gained a nationwide swing of over four percent. Yet, due to the geographically uneven nature of the swing, Labor fell 12 seats short of toppling the Coalition. Hayden did, manage to slash Fraser's majority, from 48 seats to 21, he not only regained most of what Labor had lost in the previous two elections, but put the party within striking distance of winning the next election.
By 1982 it was evident. But the main threat to Hayden came less from Fraser than from elements in Hayden's own party. Bob Hawke, a former union leader, elected to Parliament two years earlier, began mobilising his supporters to challenge Hayden's leadership. On 16 July 1982 Hayden narrowly defeated a challenge by Hawke in a party ballot but Hawke continued to plot against Hayden. In December Labor surprised many pundits by its failure to win the vital Flinders by-election in Victoria, further raising doubts about Hayden's ability to lead the ALP to power. On 3 February 1983, in a meeting in Brisbane, various leading Labor figures, including Paul Keating and Senator John Button, told him that he must resign, he reluctantly accepted their advice. Hawke was elected leader, unopposed; that morning, unaware of the events in Brisbane, Fraser in Canberra called a snap election for 5 March. Fraser had been well aware of the infighting within Labor and wanted to call an election before the party could replace Hayden with Hawke.
It was only a few hours before the writs
