Doug Lowe

Douglas Ackley Lowe (born May 15, 1942 in Hobart , Tasmania ) is an Australian politician of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), who was Prime Minister of Tasmania between 1977 and 1981 .

Life

MP and Minister

Lowe was a candidate for the Australian Labor Party on May 10, 1969 in the Franklin constituency for the first time to be elected as a member of the House of Representatives (Tasmanian House of Assembly) , the lower house of the Tasmanian Parliament, and was a member of this until his resignation on February 8, 1986.

On May 3, 1972 he was appointed by Prime Minister Eric Reece as Minister for Housing for the first time in a government of the state. At the same time he was the chief secretary of the government from April 17, 1974 to May 27, 1976.

After inauguration of Reece's successor, Bill Neilson , March 31, 1975, he not only became Deputy Prime Minister in his cabinet, but also assumed until May 27, 1976. The office as Minister of Planning and reorganization (Minister for Planning and Reorganization ) and Acting Environment Minister (Minister administering the Department of the Environment) . He was also from May 6, 1975 to December 22, 1976 Acting Minister for Local Government (Minister administering the Local Government) .

As part of a government reshuffle, he was Minister for Industrial Relations, Planning and the Environment from May 27 to August 12, 1976, and then Minister for Industrial Relations and Health until December 1, 1977 ( Minister for Industrial Relations and Health) .

prime minister

On December 1, 1977, Lowe succeeded Bill Neilson as Prime Minister and Chairman of the Labor Party of Tasmania and, at the age of 35, became the state's youngest Prime Minister until then. At the same time he took over the office of Minister for Industrial Relations and Manpower Planning from December 1, 1977 to August 7, 1979 .

In the parliamentary elections of July 18, 1979, he was able to expand the result of the Labor Party, which received 129,973 votes (54.32 percent) and now had 20 seats in the 35-member House of Assembly and thus a broad absolute majority. The Liberal Party of Australia as the strongest recorded opposition party 98,845 votes (41.31 percent) and 15 mandates, while the other party could not make it into parliament. He himself achieved the highest result in the 1979 parliamentary elections with 24,971 votes (51.2 percent).

After the election, Lowe also took over the post of Minister for Economic Planning and Development from August 7, 1979 to August 29, 1980 and as Minister of Energy from August 7, 1979 to July 7, 1981 (Minister for Energy) . In addition, he was from December 18, 1979 to February 25, 1980 Minister of Finance (Treasurer) and Minister of Forestry (Minister for Forests) in his cabinet. Most recently he was finance minister again from August 7, 1980 to November 11, 1981.

Lowe lost his post as prime minister and finance minister to his fellow party member Harry Holgate , the previous minister for water resources, the environment and local government in Lowe's cabinet , by a vote of no confidence on November 11, 1981 . Lowe then resigned from the Labor Party and remained a non-party member of the House of Representatives until his resignation on February 8, 1986 .

A few months later he was elected on May 24, 1986 as a non-party member of the Senate (Tasmanian Legislative Council) , the upper house of the Tasmanian Parliament, in the Buckingham constituency , and was a member of this until his resignation on May 2, 1992.

Publications

• The Price of Power , 1984

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the Parliament of Tasmania
• Ministers - House of Assembly - 1950 to 1989