Bernie Masters

Bernard Kent "Bernie" Masters (born 14 July 1950) is a former Australian politician.

Masters was born in Perth and worked as a geological and environmental consultant before entering politics. He was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1996 as the Liberal member for Vasse.

From 21 March 2000 to 10 January 2001 he was an Acting Speaker of the Assembly, and he was appointed Shadow Minister for the Environment, Science and Higher Education on 9 March 2001. On 31 July he was moved to Science and the Environment. Having been defeated for Liberal preselection ahead of the 2005 state election, he resigned from the Liberal Party and the shadow ministry on 16 February 2004, and served out his term as an Independent Liberal. At the 2005 election he was defeated by the Liberal candidate, Troy Buswell.^[1]

At the 2013 state election Masters stood as an independent in a field of seven candidates, including Buswell who defeated him at the 2005 election by a margin of 209 votes. Masters gained 8% of the vote while Buswell's vote fell by 4.1%.^[2]

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