William George "Bill" O'Chee

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William George "Bill" O'Chee (Born 19 June 1965) was a National Party member of the Australian Senate from 1990 to 1999, representing the State of Queensland.

He is Eurasian, have been born to a Chinese father and an Irish-Australian mother. This made him the first ethnic-Chinese to be elected to the Parliament of Australia. He was also the youngest person ever elected to the Australian Senate, having been elected at the age of 24.

He attended school at The Southport School and Brisbane State High School in Australia, as well as Oakham School in England. He later read Jurisprudence at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford, where he was a contemporary of David Cameron. Prior to his election he was an investment banker specialising in Latin American debt.

[edit] Parliamentary Career

During his time in the Senate, he served on the Senate Standing Committee on Legal & Constitutional Affairs, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Treaties, the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation, Communications & the Arts, the Senate Select Committee on A New tax System, and the Senate Standing Committee on Regulations & Ordinances (of which he was Chairman from 1996 to 1999.)

O'Chee is best known for his opposition to racism, and in particular the anti-Asian platform of the One Nation Party. He did much to raise the profile of Chinese Australians and their contribution to the nation.

He was also National Party Whip in the Senate from 1993 to 1999, and Chairman of the Coalition Government's Immigration & Multicultural Affairs Policy Committee.

As a government Senator, he clashed with Liberal Party Prime Minister John Howard over reforms to the Native Title Act. O'Chee believed that native title over pastoral and mining leases should have been extinguished in their entirety, but wished, in return, to grant freehold title to aboriginal claimants who succeeded in proving their claim over vacant crown land. His proposals were not accepted by the Prime Minister, although he did win significant concessions for pastoral landholders.

He also won a landmark case over Parliamentary privilege. He had been sued by a plaintiff wishing to gain discovery of his constituency files O'Chee refused to hand over the files, on the basis that they contained confidential information given to him by persons who wished to remain anonymous. He was ordered to discover the files, but appealed to the Court of Appeal of Queensland which held that communications between a Member of Parliament and their constituents were covered under Parliamentary Privilege and as such were entitled to confidentiality. This was the first time that Parliamentary Privilege had been found to extend to correspondence with a Member of Parliament.

[edit] Trivia

O'Chee represented Australia in the sport of skeleton from 1989 to 2002 at World Cup and World Championship races. He also coxed the Oxford University Lightweight Rowing crew in 1987.

He was named by the World Economic Forum as one of its Global Leaders for Tomorrow in 1994.