Michael Tate

Rev Prof the Hon. Michael Carter Tate AO (born 6 July 1945) is a former Australian Labor Party politician who later became an ambassador and then a Catholic priest.

Michael Tate was born in Sydney in 1945. He studied at the University of Tasmania, where he resided at St. John Fisher College, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours in 1968. He later gained a Master of Arts in Theology from Oxford in 1971. He worked as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Tasmania from 1972 to 1978, becoming Dean of the Faculty in 1977.

He served as Legal Adviser to the Tasmanian Parliamentary Delegation to the Constitutional Conventions 1973–77, and was a member of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace 1972–78.

He was elected to the Senate representing Tasmania, at the 1977 election, his term commencing on 1 July 1978. He was re-elected in 1983, 1987 and 1993. He was President of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship 1985–88. He served as Minister for Justice 1987–93 in the Hawke and Keating governments, in addition to other portfolios. He resigned from the Senate on 5 July 1993. After leaving politics he was appointed Australian Ambassador to the Netherlands and the Holy See, before retiring early to enter the priesthood.

In 1992 and 1996, respectively, Tate was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Tasmania and Charles Sturt University; and, in the Australia Day Honours of 1996, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

On 19 May 2000 he was ordained by the Archbishop of Hobart, the Most Rev. Adrian Leo Doyle in St Mary's Cathedral, Hobart. Guests included former Governor-General Bill Hayden, former Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, and former Attorneys-General Lionel Bowen and Michael Duffy. Congratulatory messages were received Pope John Paul II and former Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.^[1] That night, he told the ABC's 7.30 Report that during his last audience with Pope John Paul II as Ambassador to the Holy See, the pontiff asked him what his next posting would be. John Paul was somewhat surprised when Tate told him he would be studying for the priesthood.^[2]

On 18 November 2010 Rev Professor Tate was appointed as Tasmania's first Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. The role was established under the Integrity Commission Act 2009. The Commissioner is independent of the Integrity Commission and provides advice to Members of Parliament and the Integrity Commission about conduct, propriety and ethics and the interpretation of any relevant codes of conduct and guidelines relating to the conduct of Members of Parliament.^[3]

Tate currently serves as parish priest of the Roman Catholic Parish of the Huon Valley, Tasmania, as Diocesan Consultor to the Archdiocese of Hobart, and as Honorary Research Professor of Law at the University of Tasmania.

References

External links

• 7.30 Report transcript
• Parliamentary biography

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