Political career
Berry was elected to the first Legislative Assembly,initially as a member in a multi-member single electorate covering the entire Australian Capital Territory (ACT) at the 1989 ACT general election and re-elected at the 1992 general election. Berry stood for the electorate of Ginninderra at the 1995 general election and was re-elected;and again at the 1998,2001,and 2004 elections.
He was the first Minister for Community Services and Health in the Follett-led Labor government in a hung parliament. After a vote of no confidence was passed on Follett,Berry was forced to cross-benches. Surprisingly,Follett's deputy,Paul Whalan resigned from the Assembly in November 1990 and Berry became Follet's deputy. In 1991,when Follett succeeded Trevor Kaine as Chief Minister,Berry again assumed responsibilities as Minister for Health and became Deputy Chief Minister. The responsibilities of industrial relations and sport were added,and he held all three portfolios until the a ministerial reshuffle in 1994 when David Lamont replaced Berry in the ministry.
During his time in the Assembly,Berry campaigned strongly on pro-choice and abortion decriminalisation initiatives. [3] In the early years of the Assembly,anti-abortion activism was led by Paul Osborne and Dave Rugendyke. The Assembly legislated that a 72-hour "cooling-off" period was required before a woman who requested an abortion could access one. Additionally,"information" that must be provided to women considering abortions was significantly weighted in favour of the decision to continue with a pregnancy instead of having an abortion. [4] Berry eventually successfully lobbied for abortion to be decriminalised in 2002. [5]
He became leader of the ALP in 1997 and his leadership ended when he led the party to defeat at the 1998 election. He and his predecessor Andrew Whitecross are the only ALP leaders who did not become Chief Ministers.
Berry went on to serve as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly between 2001 and 2008. As Speaker,in 2006,he met with the Australian Governor-General,Major General Michael Jeffery and urged him not to disallow the ACT's civil union legislation. Berry asked that the Commonwealth suggest amendments that the ACT Legislative Assembly could make so that the law was acceptable to the Federal Government. The Governor-General passed the request to the Commonwealth Government. Two hours later,the Commonwealth Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and Minister for Territories Jim Lloyd arrived at Government House and together with the Governor-General moved to disallow the ACT laws permitting civil unions. [6]
Berry retired from politics at the 2008 election. [7] His daughter Yvette was elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly at the 2012 election [8] and in 2016 she became Deputy Chief Minister,a position that Wayne himself held between 1991 and 1994.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
