Andrew Barr

Andrew Barr (born 1973) is an Australian politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party member for the seat of Molonglo in the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly since 5 April 2006, after being elected on a countback to replace former Treasurer Ted Quinlan, who resigned mid-term. Barr was immediately promoted to Cabinet upon his election. As one of only five Ministers in the Territory Government, he holds a number of portfolios - Education and Training, Planning, Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Industrial Relations. He is the first openly gay MP in the ACT and the first openly gay Cabinet member anywhere in Australia.

Biography

Barr was born in Lismore,New South Wales, and was raised in Canberra, attending Holt Pre-School, the AME School, Turner Primary School, Lyneham High School and Lake Ginninderra College. He studied political science, economics and economic history at the Australian National University, where he became involved in student politics, serving as Treasurer of the Australian National University Students' Association and as a director on the board of the Australian National University Union. After graduating in 1995, he worked for the Federal parliamentarian Annette Ellis and later the then ACT Opposition Leader Jon Stanhope, before embarking on a career change to the private sector in 1999 as a media analyst and account manager.

During the 90's Barr became a leading infuence within the right faction of ACT Labor and was involved in the successful election of the first non-left faction ACT party secretary, Michael Kerrisk.

Political opponents within ACT Labor sought to use Barr's homosexuality to discredit him duiring a territory ALP conference in the late 90's by outing him with a whispering campaign. In 2006 Andrew told John Gardner from the Canberra City News that "When I came out in the late '90s I had already been in the party for some eight years, so people were already used to me," he said. "But it was at this time though that I decided to step back from front-line politics. It was a big change in my life and it was at this time that I met my partner Anthony, so I just needed time to adjust."cite web | title = Barr Interview 2006 | publisher = Canberra City News|author=John Gardner | url =http://www.coalitionforequality.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=436&Itemid=2| date =2004-01| accessdate = 2008-107-9]

He returned to political life in 2002 as Senior Adviser to the Government Whip John Hargreaves. Following Hargreaves' election to the Ministry in November 2004, as Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Barr was appointed Chief of Staff - a position he held until his election to the Assembly in April 2006.

= 2004 Australian Capital Territory legislative election =

In early 2004, Barr successfully won pre-selection for the Labor ticket in the seven-member Molonglo electorate, which includes Barr's suburb of Dickson and his previous suburb of Braddon. He campaigned largely on financial management, housing affordability and urban infrastructure issues, such as balanced territory budgets, tax concessions for first home buyers, inner city parking permits and footpath and street lighting upgrades, while also expressing support for gay law reform, the reproductive rights of women, multiculturalism and refugees. Barr polled strongly in inner city booths and ultimately found himself in contention for the seventh and final Molonglo seat, along with Liberals Jacqui Burke and Zed Seselja and fellow Labor candidate Mike Hettinger, but narrowly missed out, coming in tenth.

Barr continued working for Hargreaves after the election, but received a second chance at entering the Assembly when the Treasurer Ted Quinlan, a close political ally, resigned for health and personal reasons in March 2006. The resulting countback saw the redistribution of Quinlan's first preference votes, and as the two had campaigned together, Barr was the favourite to take the seat from the beginning. He ultimately finished with 5,318 votes, a significant majority of 1,089 over his nearest rival Kim Sattler (who, in a surprise result, outpolled Hettinger).

Quinlan's resignation from the Assembly sparked a ministerial reshuffle, and Barr was heavily tipped to take Quinlan's place in the ministry. He duly nominated for the position, easily outpolling fellow MLAs Karin MacDonald and Mary Porter. As a result, he immediately entered the ministry upon taking his seat, and was assigned the Education, Training, Industrial Relations, Sport and Tourism portfolios. Barr dedicated most of his maiden speech to economic management, housing affordability and progressive social reform.

Andrew has Labor preselection for the seat of Molongelo for the 2008 ACT poll.

Other Portfolios/ Responsibilities

Barr's other portfolios include Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Industrial Relations and, following a reshuffle in April 2007, Planning. He has also been a vocal supporter of the territory's affordable housing action plan and same-sex civil union/partnerships bill.

References

* [http://www.treasury.act.gov.au/budget/budget_2007/html/press.htm ACT Budget Papers 2007-08]
* [http://www.treasury.act.gov.au/budget/budget_2006/html/press.htm ACT Budget Papers 2006-07]

External links

* [http://www.andrewbarr.com.au Barr's 2008 ACT Election website]
* [http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/44310/20041015/www.andrewbarr.com.au/ Barr's 2004 ACT Election website (archived by Pandora)]
* [http://www.chiefminister.act.gov.au/minister_media.asp?section=56 Ministerial Webpage (with photo)]
* [http://www.det.act.gov.au/index.htm Education Department Website]
* [http://www.actpla.act.gov.au/ Planning Authority Website]
* [http://www.tams.act.gov.au/play/sport_and_recreation Sport and Recreation Website]
* [http://www.tams.act.gov.au/play/tourism Tourism Website]
* [http://www.psm.act.gov.au/ Industrial Relations Website]