Robin Gray

Robin Trevor Gray (born March 1, 1940 in Kew , Victoria ) is a politician of the Liberal Party of Australia , who was Prime Minister of Tasmania between 1982 and 1989 .

Life

Degree, MP and opposition leader

After attending school, Gray completed a degree in agricultural science , which he completed with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (B.Agr.Sc.).

He was elected for the first time as a member of the House of Representatives (Tasmanian House of Assembly) , the lower house of the Tasmanian parliament, on December 11, 1976 as a candidate for the Liberal Party in the constituency of Wilmot / Lyons, and was a member of this until he resigned on December 1, 1995.

While he was in parliament, he succeeded Geoff Pearsall as opposition leader on November 11, 1981, and as such was the top candidate of the Liberal Party in the parliamentary elections on May 15, 1982, from which the Liberal Party emerged victorious with 121,346 votes (48.52 percent) . The Liberals gained 7.21 percentage points and four seats, and had an absolute majority in the House of Assembly with 19 of the 35 seats. The previously ruling Australian Labor Party under Prime Minister Harry Holgate , on the other hand, lost 17.46 percentage points and six of its 20 seats so far and only got 92,184 votes (36.86 percent).

Prime Minister 1982 to 1989

First term of office in 1982 and 1986 and controversy over the Franklin Dam

Thereupon Gray became Prime Minister of Tasmania on May 27, 1982 and held this office until June 29, 1989. At the same time he also served as Treasurer during his entire tenure .

From May 27, 1982 to June 15, 1984, he also took over the ministerial office for racing and gaming (Minister for Racing and Gaming) in his cabinet, and between May 27, 1982 and November 1, 1988, he was also Minister of Energy (Minister for Energy) . As part of a cabinet reshuffle, he also took over the post of Minister for Forests on June 15, 1984 , which he held until February 19, 1986. At the same time he was from June 15, 1984 to February 19, 1986 also Minister for State Development (Minister for State Development) .

At the beginning of his tenure, controversy fell over the construction of the Franklin Dam , a power generation project in Tasmania that, if completed, would have flooded the original Franklin and Gordon Rivers . These river landscapes are among the most important nature reserves in the world. A protest movement prevented the construction of the dam, one of the greatest successes of the environmental movement in Australia .

Re-election in 1986

In the parliamentary elections on February 8, 1986, the result of the last parliamentary election was confirmed. The Liberal Party received 138,836 votes (54.2 percent) and still had an absolute majority with 19 MPs, while the Labor Party, now led by Ken Wriedt , achieved 90,003 votes (35.14 percent) and again had 14 MPs.

After the election, Gray took over in his cabinet on February 19, 1986, the office of Minister for State Development and Small Business (Minister for State Development and Small Business) , which he held until the end of his term on June 29, 1989. He was also last from 1 June to 29 June 1989, nor Minister of affairs of the Antarctic (Minister for Antarctic Affairs) , Minister of Science and Technology (Minister for Science and Technology) and Minister for the Status of Women (Minister for the Status of Women) .

Election defeat in 1989

In the parliamentary elections on May 13, 1989, the Liberal Party Grays was clearly the strongest party with 128,143 votes (46.92 percent), but lost 7.28 percentage points and two seats, so that it no longer had an absolute majority with 17 seats . However, the Labor Party under the new chairman Michael Field also suffered a slight loss of 0.43 percentage points with 90,003 votes (34.71 percent) and lost one of its 14 seats.

Then the Tasmanian Greens by Bob Brown tipped the scales , which received 46,797 votes (17.13 percent) and now had five MPs with a gain of 11.58 percentage points.

Gray wanted to continue to be the strongest party in government and then called for new elections, but failed despite a petition signed by numerous people. There was also a scandal after entrepreneur Edmund Rouse tried to bribe the newly elected Labor MP Jim Cox with a sum of $ 110,000 to change faction and support Gray instead of Field. However, Cox refused and reported the attempted bribe, whereupon Rouse was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The hypotheses expressed that the Liberal Party and Gray themselves were developed in this attempt at bribery were not confirmed by subsequent investigations.

Less than six weeks after the election, Fields Labor Party and Browns Tasmanian Greens formed the Labor-Green Accord , a loose alliance between the two parties that led to Field becoming Prime Minister on June 29, 1989.

Gray then resumed the position of opposition leader in the House of Representatives on June 29, 1989 and held this position until he was replaced by Ray Groom on December 17, 1991.

Minister in Government Groom and Withdrawal from Politics

After the election victory of the Liberal Party in the elections of February 1, 1992 Gray was Prime Minister Ray Groom as Minister of Primary Industries, Fisheries and Energy February 18, 1992 (Minister for Primary Industry, Fish Ries and Energy) appointed to his cabinet and has held this Ministerial until August 17, 1992. On August 17, 1992, this ministry was split into two separate ministries, both of which he headed, so that until December 4, 1995, he was both Minister of Energy and Minister of Primary Industry and Fisheries. At the same time, from February 2, 1993 to December 4, 1995, he was also Minister for the TT-Line Company , a shipping company that has been operating ferries between Tasmania and mainland Australia since 1985.

After he had already renounced his mandate in the House of Assembly on December 1, 1995, he resigned as a minister on December 4, 1995 and withdrew from political life.

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the Parliament of Tasmania
• Ministers - House of Assembly - 1950 to 1989
• Ministers - House of Assembly - 1989 to 2006

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information on curriculum.edu.au , accessed on January 12, 2010