Gary John Joseph Humphries (born 6 July 1958) has been a member of the
Australian SenateThe Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
representing the
Australian Capital TerritoryThe Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
for the
Liberal Party of AustraliaThe 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...
since 2003. He was the
Chief Minister of the Australian Capital TerritoryThe Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory is the head of government of the Australian Capital Territory. The leader of party with the largest representation of seats in the unicameral Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly usually takes on the role...
from 2000 to 2001; and was elected to the first parliament of the Australian Capital Territory, in 1989, later representing the
Molonglo electorateThe Molonglo electorate is one of the three electorates for the unicameral 17-member Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. It has seven seats, and is the largest of the electorates in terms of population.-History:...
until 2003.
Early career
Humphries was born in
SydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in 1958 and went to the
Australian National UniversityThe Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
in
CanberraCanberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
in 1977 where he was elected President of the ANU Students' Association. He worked as a
solicitorSolicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
, a legal office in the ACT Administration, prior to self-government, and political advisor to Senator
Amanda VanstoneAmanda Eloise Vanstone is a former Australian politician and a former Ambassador to Italy. She was a Liberal Senator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007, and held several ministerial portfolios in the Howard Government. After her resignation from the Senate in 2007, she served as the Australian...
.
Australian Capital Territory politics
Humpries was elected to the unicameral
ACT Legislative AssemblyThe Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory...
at the 1989 election. This election formed the first self-government of the Australian Capital Territory. Humphries represented the
Liberal PartyThe 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...
in a multi-member electorate covering the whole of the ACT. Humphries was re-elected at the
1992Elections to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly were held on Saturday, 15 February 1992. The incumbent Labor Party, led by Rosemary Follett, was challenged by the Liberal Party, led by Trevor Kaine. Candidates were elected to fill seats using a modified D'Hondt method for a...
(again in a single electorate), and at the
1995Elections to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly were held on Saturday, 18 February 1995. The incumbent Labor Party, led by Rosemary Follett, was challenged by the Liberal Party, led by Kate Carnell. For the first time, candidates were elected to fill three multi-member...
,
1998Elections to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly were held on Saturday, 21 February 1998. The incumbent Liberal Party, led by Kate Carnell, was challenged by the Labor Party, led by Wayne Berry. Candidates were elected to fill three multi-member electorates using a single...
, and
2001Elections to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly were held on Saturday, 20 October 2001. The incumbent Liberal Party, led by Gary Humphries, was challenged by the Labor Party, led by Jon Stanhope. candidates were elected to fill three multi-member electorates using a single...
elections, in the multi-member electorate of
MolongloThe Molonglo electorate is one of the three electorates for the unicameral 17-member Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. It has seven seats, and is the largest of the electorates in terms of population.-History:...
.
Humphries variously served in a range of shadow ministerial roles in the
KaineTrevor Thomas Kaine , an Australian politician, was Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory from 1989 to 1991, and was elected a multi-member single electorate first unicameral Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, from 1989 to 2001, initially as a member of the Liberal...
and
CarnellAnne Katherine Carnell AO was the third Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, serving from 1995 to 2000. She is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Food and Grocery Council.-Pharmacy career:...
oppositions, including:
- Opposition Whip
A whip is a tool traditionally used by humans to exert control over animals or other people, through pain compliance or fear of pain, although in some activities whips can be used without use of pain, such as an additional pressure aid in dressage...
- Manager of Opposition Business in the Legislative Assembly
- Manager of Opposition Business
- Shadow Minister for Police and Emergency Services
- Shadow Minister for Legal and Consumer Affairs
- Shadow Minister for Electoral Matters
- Shadow Minister for the Arts and the Family
- Shadow Attorney-General
- Deputy Leader of the Opposition (1989, 1991–93)
- Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition of the Australian Capital Territory is an official role usually occupied by the leader of the second largest party or coalition in the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly...
(1991 and 2001–02)
In late 1989, when
Trevor KaineTrevor Thomas Kaine , an Australian politician, was Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory from 1989 to 1991, and was elected a multi-member single electorate first unicameral Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, from 1989 to 2001, initially as a member of the Liberal...
became the
Chief MinisterThe Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory is the head of government of the Australian Capital Territory. The leader of party with the largest representation of seats in the unicameral Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly usually takes on the role...
in a
hung parliamentIn a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...
, Humphries was appointed Minister for Health, Education, and the Arts. He held this position until the
Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
led by
Rosemary FollettRosemary Follett AO , Australian politician, was the first Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory. She was the first woman to become head of government in an Australian state or territory....
retained government in mid-1991.
In 1995, when
Kate CarnellAnne Katherine Carnell AO was the third Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, serving from 1995 to 2000. She is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Food and Grocery Council.-Pharmacy career:...
became the Chief Minister, Humphries was appointed to the following portfolios:
- Minister for Arts and Heritage; Environment, Land and Planning; Police and Emergency Services; and Fair Trading (1995–1998)
- Attorney-General (1995–2000)
- Deputy Chief Minister
The Deputy Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory is the second-most senior officer in the Government of the Australian Capital Territory. The Deputy Chief Ministership has been a ministerial portfolio since its establishment in 1989...
(1997–2000)
- Minister for Health and Community Care
The Minister for Health is the head of the Australian Capital Territory Department of Health and appointed by the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory.The current Minister for Health is Katy Gallagher....
(1998)
- Minister Assisting the Treasurer (1998–1999)
- Treasurer
The Treasurer of the Australian Capital Territory is the title held by the Cabinet Minister who is responsible for the management of the Government of the Australian Capital Territory's public sector finances, and for preparing and delivering the annual Territory Budget.The current ACT Treasurer is...
(1999–2001)
- Chief Minister (2000–01)
In 2000, Humphries succeeded Carnell as Chief Minister, retaining the portfolio of Treasurer. At the
2001 electionElections to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly were held on Saturday, 20 October 2001. The incumbent Liberal Party, led by Gary Humphries, was challenged by the Labor Party, led by Jon Stanhope. candidates were elected to fill three multi-member electorates using a single...
, another
hung parliamentIn a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...
was the result, but the Liberal Party, led by Humphries, was defeated by the Australian Labor Party, led by
Jon StanhopeJonathan Ronald Stanhope is a former Australian politician who was Labor Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory from 2001 to 2011. Stanhope represented the Ginninderra electorate in the ACT Legislative Assembly from 1998 until 2011. He resigned as Chief Minister on 12 May 2011 and as...
.
- See also Humphries Ministry
The Humphries Ministry was the seventh ministry of the Government of the Australian Capital Territory, and was led by Liberal Chief Minister Gary Humphries and his deputy, Brendan Smyth...
Federal politics
In December 2002, Humphries was elected by the party membership as nominee to fill a forthcoming casual vacancy in the Senate caused by the announced resignation of
Margaret ReidMargaret Elizabeth Reid AO is a former Australian politician. She was the first woman to be President of the Australian Senate.-Early years:...
. Reid formally resigned on 14 February 2003, and Humphries was elected by the ACT Legislative Assembly on 18 February to fill the casual vacancy. The appointment made him the 500th person to serve in the Senate.
In 2004 there was speculation the Liberals would reject his
preselectionPreselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties...
for the Senate spot, but he won the ballot unopposed 97 votes to 43 votes (43 people voted for 'none of the above'). Humphries was re-elected at the 2004 federal election with 1.1361 quotas. Unopposed in the pre-selection ballot held on 26 June 2007, Humphries was chosen to contest the election later that year, and was again re-elected to the Senate at the 2007 federal election, receiving 1.03 quotas. Humphries' Senate seat was targeted by online activist organisation GetUp, as part of a campaign to prevent any one political party from having a majority of the seats in the federal upper house. The profile of the campaign was bolstered by polling that suggested that, for the first time, a coalition Senator might struggle to retain their seat in the ACT.
Humphries was the first Liberal senator to vote against the
HowardJohn Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
Government in its 11.5 years in office, when he voted to reverse the Federal Government's ban on the ACT's
civil unionA civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
s law in the Senate, claiming that the Commonwealth should not be able to automatically overturn ACT legislation.
Humphries has served on several
Australian Senate committeesThis article is about committees of the Senate. For consideration of bills 'in committee', see Committee of the WholeThe committees of the Australian Senate are committees of Senators, established by the Australian Senate, for purposes determined by that body...
, including the Select Committee on Mental Health (2005–2006). In 2006, he became Chairman of the Standing Committee on Community Affairs.
In 2009, after the election of
Tony AbbottAnthony John "Tony" Abbott is the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott has represented the seat of Warringah since the 1994 by-election...
as the Leader of the Opposition, Humphries was promoted to the front bench as the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families, Housing and Human Services and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship. He was re-elected at the 2010 federal election, with 1.0118 quotas and was retained on the Opposition frontbench as Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel in September 2010.
External links