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Browsing: date Contains Text 1998

BOURNE, Victoria Worrall (1954– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for New South Wales, 1990–2002 (Australian Democrats)</span>

BOURNE, Victoria Worrall (1954– )
Senator for New South Wales, 1990–2002 (Australian Democrats)

In 1973 when the Commonwealth Parliament amended the Electoral Act 1918 to lower the minimum voting age to eighteen, Vicki Bourne was a nineteen-year-old student. Inspired by the opportunity to vote, she looked at the environmental policies of each of the major political parties, rejecting the major parties in favour of the Australia Party. In 1977, when the Australia Party was merging with the

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BROWNHILL, David Gordon Cadell (1935– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for NSW, 1984–2000 (National Party of Australia)</span>

BROWNHILL, David Gordon Cadell (1935– )
Senator for NSW, 1984–2000 (National Party of Australia)

David Gordon Cadell Brownhill was born at the family property, Beaudesert station, near Mudgee, NSW, on 16 November 1935. He was the youngest of four children and the only son of Gordon McMillan Brownhill, grazier, and his wife Mary Wyatt, née Cadell. His early education was completed by correspondence. He then attended Cullenbone Public School and, from 1947 to 1953, Sydney Church of England

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COLLINS, Robert Lindsay (1946–2007)<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Northern Territory, 1987–98 (Australian Labor Party)</span>

COLLINS, Robert Lindsay (1946–2007)
Senator for Northern Territory, 1987–98 (Australian Labor Party)

Robert Lindsay (Bob) Collins, the first federal parliamentarian from the Northern Territory to hold ministerial office, was born in Newcastle, NSW, on 8 February 1946. His father, Robert James Collins, an illiterate merchant seaman and labourer, was nineteen when he married Fay Lindsay, an eighteen-year-old shop assistant, at Newcastle in January 1945. Bob was the eldest of five children, two girls and three boys.

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COLSTON, Malcolm Arthur (1938–2003)<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Queensland, 1976–99 (Australian Labor Party; Independent)</span>

COLSTON, Malcolm Arthur (1938–2003)
Senator for Queensland, 1976–99 (Australian Labor Party; Independent)

Malcolm Arthur Colston was born in Brisbane on 5 April 1938, the eldest child of Douglas Thomas Colston, a carpenter, and his wife Myrtle Clorine Ruby, née Wenck, a primary school teacher before her marriage. Even in his childhood Malcolm was more interested in books than sport. An above average student, he attended Mitchelton State School, Brisbane State High School (1952–55) and then went

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COONEY, Bernard Cornelius (1934– 2019)<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Victoria, 1985–2002 (Australian Labor Party)</span>

COONEY, Bernard Cornelius (1934– 2019)
Senator for Victoria, 1985–2002 (Australian Labor Party)

Bernard (Barney) Cornelius Cooney was born on July 11, 1934 at Currie, King Island, Tasmania, the third of four children of Bernard Pius Cooney and his wife Constance (Corrie) Eva, née Curtain. Most of Cooney’s mainly Irish forebears had lived in Tasmania for several generations, one back to the 1820s. There was the frequent Tasmanian background of both convict and west coast mining heritage

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CRANE, Arthur Winston (1941– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Western Australia, 1990–2002 (Liberal Party of Australia; Independent Liberal)</span>

CRANE, Arthur Winston (1941– )
Senator for Western Australia, 1990–2002 (Liberal Party of Australia; Independent Liberal)

Arthur Winston Crane (known as Winston) was born in Perth on 21 August 1941, one of seven children of farmer Arthur Crane and his wife Lavina, née Longman, from Bindi Bindi in the wheat belt north of Perth. Winston Crane’s uncle, Albert (Bert) Crane was a longstanding Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly representing the constituency of Moore for the National Country Party

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CROWLEY, Rosemary Anne (1938– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for South Australia, 1983–2002 (Australian Labor Party)</span>

CROWLEY, Rosemary Anne (1938– )
Senator for South Australia, 1983–2002 (Australian Labor Party)

Rosemary Anne WIllis (later Crowley), was born in Melbourne, Victoria on 30 July 1938, the second of six children of Monica Mary Willis, née Redmond, and Everard Joseph Willis, an accountant. Her family, her Roman Catholic upbringing, and her primary and secondary education at Kilmaire Brigidine Convent in Hawthorn between 1943 and 1955, combined to instil in her a passion for social justice and

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GIBBS, Brenda (1947– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Queensland, 1996–2002 (Australian Labor Party)</span>

GIBBS, Brenda (1947– )
Senator for Queensland, 1996–2002 (Australian Labor Party)

Brenda Gibbs’ term as a senator for Queensland began in the wake of a bitter pre-selection contest and the death of her 28-year-old son. In a way, it finished as it began, as the result of a factional quarrel over the federal seat of Petrie. In the interim, the senator was a strong advocate for the vulnerable and disadvantaged. Born on 3 September 1947

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GIBSON, Brian Francis (1936–2017)<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Tasmania, 1993–2002 (Liberal Party of Australia)</span>

GIBSON, Brian Francis (1936–2017)
Senator for Tasmania, 1993–2002 (Liberal Party of Australia)

Brian Francis Gibson was born on 4 November 1936 at Ascot Vale, Melbourne, the eldest son of ten children of Kingsley Melbourne Gibson and his wife Agnes, née O’Donnell. He received his secondary education at St Patrick’s College, Ballarat. Kingsley Gibson worked for the Forests Commission Victoria and Brian followed his father into forestry, gaining a forestry scholarship to the University of Melbourne where

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MacGIBBON, David John (1934– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Queensland, 1978–99 (Liberal Party of Australia)</span>

MacGIBBON, David John (1934– )
Senator for Queensland, 1978–99 (Liberal Party of Australia)

David John MacGibbon was born on 13 May 1934 in Brisbane, Queensland, son of Frederick William MacGibbon, cane grower and accountant, and his wife Eva Nicholson, née Ewart. He was educated at Maryborough High School and the University of Queensland, where he graduated as a Bachelor of Dental Science, winning the Carlisle C Bastian Prize and the Mary Moffatt Memorial Prize in 1956. MacGibbon

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MARGETTS, Diane Elizabeth (1955– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Western Australia, 1993–99, (Greens WA)</span>

MARGETTS, Diane Elizabeth (1955– )
Senator for Western Australia, 1993–99, (Greens WA)

Dee Margetts was a senator for one term between 1993 and 1999 during which she shared the balance of power in the Senate with other minor party and independent senators. The way she dealt with this situation was influenced heavily by her previous activities and experience as an environmental and peace activist. Diane Elizabeth (Dee) Margetts was born on 5 March 1955 in Fremantle,

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McKIERNAN, James Philip (1944–2018)<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Western Australia, 1985–2002 (Australian Labor Party)</span>

McKIERNAN, James Philip (1944–2018)
Senator for Western Australia, 1985–2002 (Australian Labor Party)

James Philip (Jim) McKiernan, the third of eight children of James and Mary (Maisie) McKiernan, was born on 11 October 1944 in Cavan, Ireland. From the age of six he attended De La Salle College run by the Christian Brothers but left at the age of twelve, blaming brutal and humiliating treatment that he had received at the hands of one of the brothers.

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NEWMAN, Jocelyn Margaret (1937– 2018)<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Tasmania, 1986–2002 (Liberal Party of Australia)</span>

NEWMAN, Jocelyn Margaret (1937– 2018)
Senator for Tasmania, 1986–2002 (Liberal Party of Australia)

Jocelyn Margaret Mullett (later Newman), was born in Melbourne on 8 July 1937, the eldest of three surviving children of Lyndhurst Mullett, solicitor, and his wife Margaret, née Maughan, a comptometrist. She was educated at Mont Albert Central School and Presbyterian Ladies’ College. At the University of Melbourne she was active in student politics, co-edited the student newspaper, Farrago, was elected ‘Miss University’ in

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O’CHEE, William George (1965– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Queensland, 1990–99 (National Party of Australia)</span>

O’CHEE, William George (1965– )
Senator for Queensland, 1990–99 (National Party of Australia)

Bill O’Chee was an unconventional parliamentarian: at twenty-four years of age he was the youngest person to sit in the Senate, the first with Chinese ancestry to be elected to the federal Parliament, and he was an Australian representative in world championship skeleton races, an extreme one-person form of bobsledding. O’Chee sometimes sported a bright pink tie and drove an expensive Lotus Elise sports

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PARER, Warwick (1936– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Queensland, 1984–2000 (Liberal Party of Australia)</span>

PARER, Warwick (1936– )
Senator for Queensland, 1984–2000 (Liberal Party of Australia)

Warwick Parer, entrepreneur, businessman and politician, was born in Wau, Papua New Guinea on 6 April 1936, son of Kevin Parer and his wife Annie (Nance), née McGahan. The Parers were pioneers of the timber, mining and aviation industries in New Guinea, where Kevin founded an airline, Parer’s Air Transport. Kevin Parer was reported to have been the first Australian to die at the

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QUIRKE, John Andrew (1950– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for South Australia, 1997–2000 (Australian Labor Party)</span>

QUIRKE, John Andrew (1950– )
Senator for South Australia, 1997–2000 (Australian Labor Party)

John Quirke resigned a seat that he had held for eight years in the South Australian Parliament to take up a casual vacancy in the Senate in September 1997. While he had little time to make his mark in federal Parliament before he was forced to resign due to ill health in 2000, he nonetheless made a solid contribution, particularly to the work of

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REYNOLDS, Margaret (1941– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Queensland, 1982–99 (Australian Labor Party)</span>

REYNOLDS, Margaret (1941– )
Senator for Queensland, 1982–99 (Australian Labor Party)

Margaret Reynolds, activist, educator and author, was born Margaret Lyne, in Hobart on 19 July 1941, the only child of Walter Rodis (Rod) Lyne and his wife Jess, née Montgomery, a teacher. Rod Lyne, who worked on his father’s farm before serving with the Australian Army in New Guinea, died in 1947. During the war Jess took Margaret to Launceston to live near her

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SCHACHT, Christopher Cleland (1946– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for South Australia, 1987–2002 (Australian Labor Party)</span>

SCHACHT, Christopher Cleland (1946– )
Senator for South Australia, 1987–2002 (Australian Labor Party)

Christopher Cleland Schacht was born on 6 December 1946 in Melbourne, the only child of Lloyd Christopher and Mary Cleland Schacht, née Timcke. In the early 1860s his great-grandfather, Heinrich Schacht, arrived in Brisbane from Schleswig-Holstein, a disputed border province between Prussia and Denmark; another descendant was Peter Shack, former Liberal MP for Tangney, WA. Chris Schacht grew up in Gippsland, Victoria, where the

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SYNON, Karen (1959– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Victoria, 1997–99 (Liberal Party of Australia)</span>

SYNON, Karen (1959– )
Senator for Victoria, 1997–99 (Liberal Party of Australia)

Karen Margaret Synon was born in Moe, Victoria on 15 September 1959 and attended Whitehorse Girls’ College and Blackburn South High School before completing a Master of Business Administration at the University of Melbourne. Prior to embarking on a parliamentary career, Synon worked in a range of community development and education roles and in a senior management role in the Victorian public service. In

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TAMBLING, Grant Ernest John (1943– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Northern Territory, 1987–2001 (Country Liberal Party)</span>

TAMBLING, Grant Ernest John (1943– )
Senator for Northern Territory, 1987–2001 (Country Liberal Party)

Grant Ernest John Tambling, the eldest of three children and known to his friends as ‘Tambo’, was born at Wondai, near Kingaroy, Queensland, on 20 June 1943. His parents, Ernest ‘Tam’ Tambling, and Edna, née Williamson, both schoolteachers, had married in Darwin in 1941, and returned there in 1946 after Ernest had completed army service at bases in New South Wales and Queensland. Grant

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WEST, Suzanne Margaret (1947– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for New South Wales, 1987, 1990–2002 (Australian Labor Party)</span>

WEST, Suzanne Margaret (1947– )
Senator for New South Wales, 1987, 1990–2002 (Australian Labor Party)

Suzanne Margaret (Sue) West was born 21 September 1947, the daughter of Edna May, née Bennett, and her husband Timothy Henry (Tim) West, a grazier from Cowra. Tim was an unsuccessful ALP candidate at four state elections between 1976 and 1984 but earned an OAM for his services to the Cowra community. Sue was indelibly shaped by her local community. Living fifteen miles from

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WOODLEY, John (1938– )<br /><span class=subheader>Senator for Queensland, 1993–2001 (Australian Democrats)</span>

WOODLEY, John (1938– )
Senator for Queensland, 1993–2001 (Australian Democrats)

In her valedictory speech after John Woodley’s retirement from the Senate, Australian Democrats Senator Vicki Bourne suggested that he had always followed the advice of Proverbs 25:21 to comfort enemies with food and drink. It was natural that Senator Bourne should turn to the Bible in speaking of Senator Woodley, a Uniting Church minister who was sometimes called ‘Rev’ by his parliamentary colleagues. John

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