Kep Enderby

Keppel "Kep" Enderby QC (b 25 June 1926) is an Australian Esperantist and former leading Australian politician.

Enderby was born in Dubbo, New South Wales and educated at Dubbo High School. He was a trainee pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1944 and 1945. He studied law at Sydney University from 1946 to 1950 and was admitted to the New South Wales bar in 1950. From 1950 to 1954 he worked as a barrister in London and studied at the University of London. He also played golf in the British Amateur and Open Championship in 1951 and 1952. He returned to New South Wales in 1955 and practised law and lectured at Sydney Technical College. In 1962 he became a lecturer in law at the Australian National University in Canberra. In 1966, he began practising law in Canberra while continuing to teach part-time. He was appointed a Queens Counsel (QC) in 1973.cite web
title=Biographies, Kep Enderby
publisher=New South Wales Council of Civil Liberties
url=http://www.nswccl.org.au/about/biographies.php#ke
accessdate=2008-02-03]

Political career

In 1970 Enderby gained Australian Labor Party (ALP) pre-selection for the Division of Australian Capital Territory and was subsequently elected to the House of Representatives at a by-election following Jim Fraser's death in April 1970. Following Whitlam's victory at the 1972 election, Enderby was appointed as the first minister for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory in the December 1972 ministry, replacing the former portfolio of the Interior. In October 1973, he lost these posts, partly because his ACT porfolio made him responsible for implementing policies that were unpopular in his electorate. Instead he became Minister for Secondary Industry and Minister for Supply. Enderby became the last Minister for Supply—a portfolio which had been established at the beginning of World War II and included responsibility for government munitions factories—when Supply and Secondary Industry were merged into the "Manufacturing Industry" portfolio in the June 1974 ministry. It was during this time that he made what has become his most famous utterance: "Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas." Fact|date=August 2007

In February 1975, with Lionel Murphy's appointment to the High Court of Australia, Enderby became Attorney-General and Minister for Customs and Excise. The Customs and Excise porfolio was renamed Police and Customs in March 1975, reflecting the government's decision to establish the Australia Police—a proposal actually implemented in 1979, with the creation of the Australian Federal Police in 1979. The Police and Customs portfolio was reassigned to James Cavanagh in June 1975.

Enderby was elected to the new electorate of Canberra at the 1974 election, but was one of many Labor members to lose their seats in the landslide 1975 election defeat that followed the dismissal of the Whitlam Government.

After politics

Following the loss, Enderby moved to Sydney and returned to the bar where he practised as a Queen's Counsel. From 1982 until his retirement in 1992 he was the judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

The one-time amateur golf champion has held a number of community positions throughout his career, including presiding over the regional society for voluntary euthanasia. Additionally, after learning Esperanto in 1987, Enderby became involved in Esperanto organisations, including serving as President of the Australian Esperanto Association from 1992 to 1997, as a committee member of the World Esperanto Association from 1992 to 2004, as President of the Esperanto Law Association from 1996 to 2002 and from 1998 to 2001 as President of the World Esperanto Association.

References

External links

In Esperanto
* [http://home.arcor.de/gmickle/skk/92enderby.html Cxu zamenhofa maljusteco?] (An injustice to Zamenhof?)

In English
* [http://john.curtin.edu.au/jcmemlect/enderby1975.html Barriers to Reform - The Politics of Opposition] , speech in the John Curtin Memorial, 1975

Persondata
NAME = Enderby, Kep
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Enderby, Keppel
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Australian politician and judge
DATE OF BIRTH = 25 June 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH = Dubbo, New South Wales
DATE OF DEATH = Living
PLACE OF DEATH =