Barry Jones (Australian politician)
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| Barry Jones MP | |
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| In office 11 March 1983 – 4 April 1990 |
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| Preceded by | David Thomson |
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| Succeeded by | Simon Crean (Science) David Beddall (Small Business and Customs) |
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| In office 10 December 1977 – 31 August 1998 |
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| Preceded by | Jim Cairns |
| Succeeded by | Julia Gillard |
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| In office June 1972 – November 1977 |
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| Preceded by | Arthur Clarey |
| Succeeded by | Keith Remington |
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| Born | October 11, 1932 Geelong, Victoria, Australia |
| Nationality |  Australia |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Spouse | Rosemary Jones (nee Hanbury) (30 June 1961 – her death c. 2005) |
| Profession | teacher, writer, politician |
Barry Owen Jones AO (born 11 October 1932, Geelong, Victoria) is a writer, lawyer, social activist, quiz champion and former politician. He campaigned against the death penalty throughout the 1960s, particularly against the execution of Ronald Ryan, and remains against capital punishment. In 1998 he was named as one of Australia's "Great Minds".[citation needed] He is on the National Trust's list of Australian Living Treasures.
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[edit] Early life
Barry Jones was educated at Melbourne High School and Melbourne University where he studied arts and law. He began his career as a schoolteacher at Dandenong High School, where he taught for nine years, before becoming a household name as an Australian quiz champion in 1960 on Bob Dyer's Pick a Box, a radio show from 1948, televised from 1957. He was famous for taking issue with Dyer about certain expected answers, most famously in response to a question about "the first British Governor-General of India", where he pointed out that Warren Hastings was only technically Governor of Bengal. Barry Jones' appearances on Pick a Box lasted from 1960 to 1968.[1]
[edit] Political career
A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1950, Jones was a Federal candidate in 1955, 1958 and 1963, with a strong interest in education and civil liberties. Jones' political career began in the Victorian Parliament where he represented the electorate of Melbourne as a Labor Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from 1972 to 1977, when he resigned to go into federal politics.
In 1977, he was elected to the House of Representatives as the Labor member for the Federal seat of Lalor in Victoria, which he held until his retirement in 1998. He was Minister for Science in the Hawke government from 1983 to 1990, in which role he presided over the growth of organisations such as CSIRO, the creation of the Australia Prize, Questacon and the Commission for the Future. Jones lost his place in the ministry when he failed to gain the backing of his centre-left faction.
In 1992, upon the resignation of Stephen Loosley, to whom he had lost the position in a split vote in 1991, he was elected ALP National President. He served in the position until 2000. He became National President again in 2005-06.
Jones was the chief architect of the ALP's Knowledge Nation education concept, as chair of the Chifley Research Centre's Knowledge Nation Taskforce [2]. During this time he was also a member of the council for the National Library of Australia.
He was the Vice President of the World Heritage Committee from 1995 to 1996 and a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO from 1991-95.
In 1998 he was Deputy Chair of the fourth Constitutional Convention.
[edit] Academic career
Barry Jones attended the selective Melbourne High School in South Yarra before continuing on to and graduating from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Laws and Master of Arts. Jones holds the honorary degrees of Doctor of Letters from the University of Technology, Sydney and University of Wollongong, Doctor of Science from Macquarie University and Doctor of Laws from the University of Melbourne.
In 1999 he was appointed an Adjunct Professor at Monash University and became a Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Melbourne in 2005.
He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA); a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA); a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA); and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE): he was the first person elected Fellow of all four Australian learned academies. In 1999 he was elected a Visiting Fellow Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge.
[edit] Later life
He chairs the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority and serves on the boards of six medical research institutes. He chaired the Victorian Schools Innovation Commission 2001-05.
He appears regularly as a member of the Brains Trust on The Einstein Factor.
Barry Jones Bay in the Australian Antarctic Territory and Yalkaparidon jonesi, an extinct marsupial, were named after him.
[edit] Writings
Jones has been a prolific author of political and sociological books including:
- Decades of Decision 1860-, 1965
- The Penalty is Death (editor), 1968
- Joseph II, 1968
- Barry Jones' Guide to Modern History: Age of Apocalypse, 1975
- Macmillan Dictionary of Biography (editor), 1981
- Sleepers, Wake! Technology and the Future of Work, 1982
- Barry Jones' Dictionary of World Biography, 1994
- A Thinking Reed (autobiography), 2006.
He is reputedly the owner of the largest private autograph collection in Australia.[citation needed]
[edit] References
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007) |
[edit] External links
- Brisbane Institute page on Barry Jones
- Knowledge Nation Taskforce
- Antarctic Gazetteer entry for Barry Jones Bay
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by David Thomson |
Minister for Science (and Technology)/ Minister for Science, (Customs) and Small Business 11 March 1983 – 4 April 1990 |
Succeeded by Simon Crean (Science) David Beddall (Small Business and Customs) |
| Parliament of Australia | ||
| Preceded by Jim Cairns |
Member for Lalor 10 December 1977 – 31 August 1998 |
Succeeded by Julia Gillard |
| Persondata | |
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| NAME | Jones, Barry Owen |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Australian politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 11, 1932 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Geelong, Victoria, Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
