Kerry Sibraa

Kerry Walter Sibraa (born October 12, 1937 in Sydney ) is an Australian politician of the Australian Labor Party , former President of the Australian Senate and diplomat.

Life

Sibraa was born the only son of the teachers Edna May, nee Williams, and Arthur Francis Sibraa. He attended state primary schools in Condoblin , Hungary , Shortland and Newcastle . The variety of schools resulted from the family following the father's transfers. As a secondary school, he first went to Newcastle Boys 'High School and then, after the family moved to a northern suburb of Sydney, the North Sydney Boys' High School . In his youth he began to get involved in surf life saving as well as rugby and rugby union , for which he was still active in old age.

He started working at Sydney's Metropolitan Water Board and later at Manly Municipal Council . During this time he began to unionise. In 1960 he joined the social democratic Australian Labor Party, for which he ran unsuccessfully for the Australian House of Representatives in Wentworth in 1966 . In 1968, encouraged by his friend John Ducker, he began working full-time for the Labor Party of New South Wales . In 1973 he was unanimously elected Deputy Secretary General in New South Wales. Sibraa belonged to the right wing of the party and supported Ducker, the strong man of the party in New South Wales at the time. Sibraa was also the director of the Henry Lawson Labor College .

In December 1975 he was elected to the Australian Senate for New South Wales rather surprisingly . His term of office ended on June 30, 1978. However, in August 1978 he was able to return to the Senate. In 1980, 1983, 1984, 1987 and 1993 he was re-elected. He is considered an election campaign strategist and was responsible for the 1983 election campaign of Bob Hawkes .

In terms of content, he was committed to a public health system and dealt with topics such as pensions, unemployment and public education. He opposed efforts to regulate trade unions and advocated reform of electoral law and campaign finance. He was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense. In 1979 he visited Africa with a delegation and there learned the effects of apartheid . From then on, the region assumed a special role in his political activities. He assumed the role of vice-chairman and later chairman of the Subcommittee on Middle East and African Affairs. Foreign policy played a major role in his activity. In 1980 he campaigned for the end of the recognition of the government of the dictator Pol Pot in Cambodia by Australia. In fact, Australia ended this recognition in 1981. In 1985, he became chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense. From November 1980 to February 1983 he was deputy opposition leader in the Senate.

On February 17, 1987, he prevailed in the election of President of the Senate against Don Jessop and George Georges . In 1990 and 1993 he was re-elected unopposed, although his party still did not have an absolute majority in the Senate. In 1988 he organized the move of the Senate to a new parliament building. He had been a member of the committee for the new building since 1981. He enforced television broadcasts of Senate meetings. During his tenure, the rules of procedure were also fundamentally revised.

In his function as President of the Senate, he also led various delegations on the international stage. In addition to trips to Europe , including Germany , he often attended conferences of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA). In 1988, as President of the CPA, he hosted such a conference in Australia. He was a member of an election observation group in Zambia in 1991 and a group to monitor the independence referendum in Eritrea in 1993. In 1992, he unsuccessfully applied for the position of general secretary of the CPA.

On January 31, 1994, he resigned as President of the Senate and a day later as Senator, as he was appointed Australian High Commissioner in Zimbabwe . He was also accredited in Angola , Botswana , Malawi , Mozambique , Namibia and Zambia . He held this position until 1998. He then worked for several private companies, with his Australian-African relations being particularly important.

From 2003 to 2010 he was Honorary Consul General of Mozambique in Australia.

family

On December 14, 1957, he married Yvonne Margaret Melvin. The marriage produced a son and a daughter. In 1992 there was a divorce. Sibraa then married Julie Louise Hatcher on November 26, 1993.

Awards

In 1997 he was appointed officer of the Order of Australia .

Web links

• Jarrod M. Jolly, Sibraa, Kerry Walter (1937–) on biography.senate.gov.au (English)