Victor Garland

Sir Victor Garland KBE (born 5 May 1934), usually known as Vic Garland, is an Australian former politician, Australian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom and director of many UK and US public companies. A Liberal Party member of the Australian House of Representatives, he represented the Division of Curtin in Western Australia from April 1969 to January 1981. He was subsequently a high-ranking diplomat.

Biography

Born in Western Australia and raised in Perth, Garland was educated at Hale School and the University of Western Australia, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts majoring in economics. He became a chartered accountant like his father, and became involved in community affairs and served on the Town of Claremont council. As Vice-President of the Liberal Party of Western Australian, he was elected to the House of Representatives in a by-election for the Curtin electorate, following the resignation of Sir Paul Hasluck in 1969 to become Governor-General of Australia.

Garland held a number of ministerial roles during the William McMahon and Malcolm Fraser governments, starting as Minister for Supply (1971–1972) and Minister Assisting the Treasurer under McMahon until the Coalition's defeat by the Australian Labor Party in 1972. He was Parliamentary Advisor to the Australian Mission to the United Nations General Assembly, New York, 1973. He served as Chief Opposition Whip from June 1974 to March 1975.

When the Coalition regained power under Fraser's leadership, after the dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975, Garland was made Minister for Post and Telecommunications (replacing the former portfolio of Postmaster-General). Garland resigned from the ministry in 1976 after he was accused of committing electoral offences,^[1] although the Chief Magistrate of the ACT dismissed the charges. For several months Garland remained a backbencher before being appointed the first Chairman of the House of Representatives Expenditure Committee (1976–1977), Minister for Veterans' Affairs (1977–1978),^[2] Minister for Special Trade Representations (1978–1979) and Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs (1979–1980).

Following the November 1980 federal election, Garland resigned from Parliament on 22 January 1981 and he served as Australian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1983. In 1982, he became a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE).

Following his departure from the High Commissioner's post, he stayed on in London, serving as Director both non-executive director and executive director of over 30 companies in the UK and US. The most notable were the Prudential Assurance plc for nearly 10 years, the South Bank Board (Royal Festival Hall Complex) as Vice-Chairman for 15 years, The Throgmorton Trust plc, Classic ITC Threadneedle AMC (India), Nelson Hurst plc, Signet Group plc, The Ark Funds Inc. (US), Mitchell Cotts plc, Fidelity Asian Values plc and many finance companies, some of which he chaired.^[3]

In July 2007 he returned to Perth, Australia.

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