Bernard Collaery

Bernard Collaery
Member of ACT Legislative Assembly
In office
4 March 1989 – 15 February 1992
2nd Deputy Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory
In office
7 December 1989 – 29 May 1991
2nd Attorney-General of the Australian Capital Territory
In office
7 December 1989 – 29 May 1991
Personal details
Nationality  Australia
Political party Residents Rally
Occupation Barrister and lawyer

Bernard Joseph Edward Collaery, a former Australian politician, and currently a barrister and lawyer, was a member of the first multi-member single electorate unicameral Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly for the Residents Rally party, from 1989 to 1992. He served as Deputy Chief Minister and Attorney-General from 1989 to 1991 in the Kaine Alliance Government.

Political career

Prior to entering politics, Collaery was a First Secretary in Australia's Embassy in France.[1]

Collaery was elected to the Assembly at the first Australian Capital Territory general election, held in 1989[2] and was leader of the Residents Rally Party,[3] "a community-based urban green party".[4] The life of the first Assembly was characterised by a hung parliament and significant political instability. Confidence was waning in the minority Follett Labor government. On 5 December 1989, Collaery moved the following motion in the Assembly[5]

That this Assembly no longer has confidence in the Chief Minister of the ACT and the minority Labor Government and has confidence in the ability of Mr Kaine to form a government.

The vote was resolved in affirmative (10 votes to 7 votes), and Trevor Kaine elected as Chief Minister as leader of an Alliance Government, comprising members of both the Liberal Party and some (but not all) members of the Residents Rally in the Assembly. Collaery was subsequently appointed as Deputy Chief Minister and Attorney-General in the Kaine Liberal government with responsibility for welfare and community services; housing; sport and recreation; and youth.[6] On 29 May 1991, Kaine announced to the Assemby that members of Residents Rally had met the previous evening and decided to dissolve the Alliance, due to an internal split in the Rally party, where two of the four members chose to align themselves with the Kaine government. The remaining two members choose to not align themselves with the Kaine government. Collaery stood down as Attorney-General and as Deputy Chief Minister.[7] On 6 June 1991, a motion of no confidence in Kaine, as Chief Minister, was passed with Collaery voting in favour of the motion, despite him previously being a senior figure in the Kaine Alliance government.[8] The Follett Labor government resumed power, and Collaery sat on the backbenches. He was unsuccessful in seeking re-election to the Assembly at the 1992 general election.[9]

In the 1993 federal election, Collaery was an independent candidate for election to the Australian Senate; he was unsuccessful.[10]

Legal career

As a barrister, Collaery has represented plaintiffs in a number of high profile cases, including:

Collaery has had a long association, representing the interests of Timor-Leste. Collaery advocated on behalf of Timor-Leste and was legal advisor to the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) in the critical period up until formal independence in 2002.[16][17]

References

  1. ^ "Cold Wind from East Timor". Radio National – Background Breifing (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). 1997-07-27. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s10586.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-14. 
  2. ^ "Members of the ACT Legislative Assembly". ACT Legislative Assembly. 2008. http://www.legassembly.act.gov.au/education/memlist/memlist.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-02. 
  3. ^ "20 Years of Self Government". Stateline (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). 2009-05-08. http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/act/content/2006/s2566353.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-14. 
  4. ^ Collaery, Bernard (2004). "Community policing – an ACT perspective". Australian Institute of Criminology. http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/previous%20series/proceedings/1-27/~/media/publications/proceedings/05/colaery.ashx. Retrieved 2010-09-03. 
  5. ^ "Assembly Debate – 5/12/1989". ACT Hansard. ACT Legislative Assembly. 1989-12-05. pp. 2987–2993. http://www.hansard.act.gov.au/hansard/1989/pdfs/19891205.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-14. 
  6. ^ "Assembly Debate – 7/12/1989". ACT Hansard. ACT Legislative Assembly. 1989-12-07. p. 3087. http://www.hansard.act.gov.au/hansard/1989/pdfs/19891207.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-14. 
  7. ^ "Assembly Debate – 29/05/1991". ACT Hansard. ACT Legislative Assembly. 1991-05-29. pp. 2125, 2134–7. http://www.hansard.act.gov.au/hansard/1991/pdfs/19910529.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-14. 
  8. ^ "Assembly Debate – 06/06/1991". ACT Hansard. ACT Legislative Assembly. 1991-06-06. pp. 2167–236. http://www.hansard.act.gov.au/hansard/1991/pdfs/19910529.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-14. 
  9. ^ "List of candidates". 1992 Election. ACT Electoral Commission. 1992. http://www.elections.act.gov.au/elections/1992/candidates_92.html. Retrieved 2010-08-03. 
  10. ^ Carr, Adam (1993). "Senate – ACT – Results". 1993 Federal election results. Australian Electoral Commission. http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/1993/1993senateact.txt. Retrieved 2010-08-14. 
  11. ^ "The day the earth fell on Thredbo". The Age (Fairfax Media). 30 July 2002. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/29/1027926853777.html. Retrieved 3 August 2010. 
  12. ^ Francis, Adrienne (10 March 2010). "Chief Justice inspects bushfire victim's farm". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/10/2842033.htm. Retrieved 3 August 2010. 
  13. ^ Reynolds, Fiona (5 November 1999). "Increasing pressure on ACT Chief Minister". AM (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s64319.htm. Retrieved 3 August 2010. 
  14. ^ Nairn, Jessica (27 May 2011). "Judgement on ACT police shooting case". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/27/3229182.htm. Retrieved 10 June 2011. 
  15. ^ Andrews, Louis (10 June 2011). "$8m payout for man shot by police". The Canberra Times (Fairfax Media). http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/8m-payout-for-man-shot-by-police/2191841.aspx. Retrieved 10 June 2011. 
  16. ^ "AusTimorFN welcomes H.E. Abel Guterres (back) to Australia". Friends of Balibo. 2 June 2010. http://friendsofbalibo.blogspot.com/. Retrieved 14 August 2010. 
  17. ^ Gibbs, Adrian (29 July 1998). "East Timor independence rally". Green Left Weekly. http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/17195. Retrieved 14 August 2010.