Andrew Barr
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007) |
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.
[edit] 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. 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.
[edit] 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. 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.
[edit] Sustainable Schools
In November 2006, Barr announced that every ACT government school should be a sustainable school and the Government had encompassed sustainability into the new draft curriculum framework so that students are learning about it as part of their everyday life.
Barr committed the Government to embracing these issues and providing learning environments for students that are compatible with sustainability. Over the next four years, the Government will undertake an upgrade of all government schools with a view to retro-fitting older schools to become more environmentally sustainable. Barr also announced that new ACT government schools will follow environmental design principles and will utilise renewable energy.
[edit] School Infrastructure and Information Technology Package
As part of the four-year, $90m school infrastructure upgrade package, Barr announced that in the first year of the program over 223 separate projects would be undertaken to improve more than 72 schools across Canberra. These works include: improvements to specialist teaching and learning areas such as science labs, home science areas, art rooms and sporting areas, as well as upgrades to play equipment, new landscaping, new paint, new carpets, new glazing, and upgrades to staff rooms and canteens. Work would also be undertaken in the areas of heating, plumbing and electrical connections as well as works to increase accessibility for students with special needs.
[edit] Affordable Housing Action Plan
The ACT Government’s Affordable Housing Action Plan brings many welcome changes that will boost the supply of lower-cost housing in the ACT and help ensure that all Canberrans have access to housing that is affordable and appropriate to their needs.
High levels of employment, sustained wages growth and a booming ACT economy have put pressure on our housing market, for renters and for buyers.
The Affordable Housing Action Plan is a comprehensive package of strategies that will help ease this pressure, boosting the supply of rental accommodation, easing entry to the market for home buyers, placing greater emphasis on community and not-for-profit housing and making more effective use of the Territory’s public housing.
[edit] Simpler, Faster and More Effective Planning System
Legislation to make the ACT’s planning system simpler, faster and more effective was passed by the Legislative Assembly in August 2007.
Barr said the Planning and Development Bill would benefit all users of the system with one of the key changes seeing more developments and redevelopments exempt from what can be time consuming and expensive development assessment processes. This meant a simpler and faster process for the community and for developers and represented a significant reduction in the level of red tape.
Barr said timeframes for developments that do require approval processes will also be tightened. For property owners who want to build something that does require approval, the processes that apply to the approval will be tailored to suit the type of development. People prepared to follow black and white rules will have the opportunity to get approval within 20 working days. Those who want more flexibility can continue to get approval within 30 or 45 days. Environmental assessments will also be tailored to the type of development.
Neighbours and the public will still be able to comment on many individual developments, but there will be a stronger test of needing to show they may suffer material detriment to appeal. There will also be more emphasis on engaging the community during the development of policy, rather than at the end of the process.
Barr said that this legislation leads the nation by introducing the national best practice model for development assessment.
[edit] Statement of Planning Intent
Barr released his first Statement of Planning Intent in June 2007. The stated goal of the statement was to make life easier for Canberrans. The statement highlighted some key areas of policy focus - affordable housing, services in Gungahlin, responding to climate change, planning system reform and national leadership.
[edit] Family and Community Day Public Holiday
Barr recently announced that ACT workers would get an additional day off with the first ever Family and Community Dayto be held on the first Tuesday in November 2007. Barr argued that Australians work the longest hours in the developed world and as the Howard Government had enforced a retrograde industrial relations system that encouraged less work-life balance, workers were spending less time with their families. As a way of compensating Canberrans for these changes, and to encourage more time to be spent with family and friends, the ACT Government introduced the new holiday. This means the ACT will now have 12 public holidays, the same as Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Whilst Trade Unions and the general public welcomed the additional holiday, it was opposed by business groups and the Liberal opposition.
[edit] Dragway
Barr announced on 21 December 2006 that an extensive report into the environmental and financial viability of a dragway in the ACT had raised significant concerns with the proposed Majura site. The report said the development of a facility would be unlikely to meet applicable environmental noise criteria and likely to require substantial additional financial contribution by Government beyond the $8 million already set aside in the Budget. Barr said the ACT Government had exhausted all land options and would be writing to the Australian Government to request that they re-lease the former dragway site.
[edit] 2006-07 Australian Capital Territory Budget
With the territory budget known to be in deficit at the time of assuming his ministerial responsibilities, Barr was immediately thrown into a difficult position, as it became clear that he would have to preside over major cuts to services in his portfolios. This was most clearly felt in education, where one of Barr's first public announcements in his inauagural speech was that school and pre-school closures had become inevitable - an issue not raised in the Territory since a plan to close twenty-five schools in 1991 brought down the Kaine government[citation needed].
[edit] Towards 2020
As part of the Budget, the Government announced a proposal to close 17 schools and 22 pre-schools. The Government called for interested persons to make a written submission in response to its proposal. In accordance with the Education Act 2004, submissions were asked to consider the educational, financial and social issues that were facing the ACT education system.
On 13 December 2006, Barr announced that one high school, 11 primary schools and 11 preschools would close over three years and that four new schools would be built over the next four years. The new schools that will open are Harrison (2008), West Belconnen (2009), Gungahlin College (2010) and Tuggeranong (2011). The Government also announced a $90m school infrastructure upgrade package, a $20 information technology package and a $750 transition payment to students whose schools are closing to assist with the transition to a new school.[citation needed].
Campaigners against this process have commenced legal action and are considering standing candidates against the ALP at the next ACT election scheduled for October 2008.
[edit] 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.
