Bernard Kent "Bernie" Masters (born 14 July 1950) is a former Australian politician.

Masters was born in Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 and worked as a geological and environmental consultant before entering politics. He was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly

Western Australian Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Perth....

 in 1996 as the Liberal

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 member for Vasse

Electoral district of Vasse

-External links:* ABC Election Profiles: * WAEC District Maps:...

. From 21 March 2000 to 10 January 2001 he was an Acting Speaker of the Assembly, and he was appointed Shadow Minister for the Environment, Science and Higher Education on 9 March 2001. On 31 July he was moved to Science and the Environment. He resigned from the Liberal Party and the ministry on 16 February 2004 and served out his term as an Independent Liberal

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

. At the 2005 state election

Western Australian state election, 2005

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 26 February 2005 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...

 he was defeated by the Liberal candidate, Troy Buswell

Troy Buswell

Troy Raymond Buswell is currently the Liberal member for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Vasse, and the Minister for Transport and Minister for Housing. He was Leader of the Opposition for several months in 2008, then served as Treasurer of Western Australia in the Barnett...

.