Rodney Mark Cavalier (born 11 October 1948) is a former New South Wales government Minister and the current Chairman of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust.[1]
Cavalier, was born in 1948. His father was of Italian extraction, originally surnamed Cavallari, his mother of Scottish background. He grew up in the Sydney suburb of Putney, attending the local public school before moving to Fort Street Boys' High School and the University of Sydney, where he studied government and became increasingly involved in left-wing politics. Cavalier worked for the Australia Council, for the Miscellaneous Workers' Union, as an aide to Whitlam minister Clyde Cameron, and was an alderman on Hunters Hill Council.[1]
In 1978 he was elected member for the state seat of Fuller, which was later to be redrawn as Gladesville, representing the Australian Labor Party. He served as Minister for Education from 1984 to 1988 in the Neville Wran and Barrie Unsworth governments. He was noted for his abrasive personality, reformist zeal and intolerance of sloppy work. One left-wing Teachers Federation activist described him as "the rudest, most pugnacious individual to hold office".[1]
He lost office, and his seat, in 1988, and subsequently declined an offer to return to State Parliament in the seat of Granville or by way of the Legislative Council. He was appointed chairman of the Australian Language and Literacy Council and subsequently became deputy chairman of the National Council for the Centenary of Federation and chairman of the Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government in NSW. He was appointed a member of the Council of the National Library of Australia.
Cavalier is an ardent book collector and lover of cricket, and in 2001 was appointed Chairman of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust.
In 2010, he published "Power Crisis: The self-destruction of a State Labor Party", a book examining the political problems of the NSW Labor government.