Michael Moore (Australian politician)

Michael John Moore AM is a public health leader, academic and former Australian politician. He was an independent member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly for four terms, from 1989 to 2001. He served as Australia's first independent minister as Minister of Health and Community Care from 1998 to 2001 in the Liberal minority government led by Chief Minister, Kate Carnell and later, Gary Humphries.^[1]

Since 2008, Moore has been the chief executive officer of the Public Health Association of Australia.^[2] He was elected as President of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (2016-2018). In January 2017 he was made a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for "significant service to community health, particularly to social policy reform, and to the community of the Australian Capital Territory". He remains a political and social commentator with the City News in Canberra, is a Visiting Professor with the University of Technology Sydney and an Adjunct Professor with the University of Canberra with an academic interest in health and governance. He is undertaking a PhD at the University of Canberra examining health advocacy. He has over 30 publications in peer review journals and many more in other publications. He was awarded the Gerald Le Dain Award for "Achievement in the Field of Law" in Washington in 1994 by the Drug Policy Foundation, Aids Action Council (ACT) President's Award and the Rotary Club of Canberra made him a Paul Harris Fellow in 2010 after serving as President 2007-2008. He has been heavily involved in a wide range of socially progressive policies during and post-politics involving himself with a range of networks and boards.

Politics

In 1989 Moore was elected to the first multi-member single-constituency unicameral ACT Legislative Assembly. No party had won a majority, and Rosemary Follett's Labor Party formed a minority government. He was re-elected for a second term at the single-constituency 1992 general election with Helen Szuty as part of the Michael Moore Independent Group, and at the 1995 and 1998 general elections as Moore Independents. He represented the electorate of Molonglo. On becoming Minister he set a blueprint for reform 'Setting the Agenda' and achieved 11 of the 12 specific goals. He was also Minister for Housing, Corrections and Children's Services and was Manager of Government Business. He chaired the Australian Ministerial Councils for both Health and Corrections.

Moore was a social progressive who was responsible for the legalisation of prostitution,^[3] the decriminalisation of cannabis^[4] and who was a strong advocate for trialling the provision of heroin to dependent users.^[5] He was a joint founder of the Australian Parliamentary Group on Drug Law Reform,^[6] the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation and sponsored the early meetings of the group Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform.^[7][8]

Other positions

Prior to politics Moore was a high school teacher and faculty head. He was an Army Reservist (CMF) reaching the rank of Lieutenant and was a consultant and small business owner in Canberra (2002-2008). He holds a post-graduate diploma in education, a master's degree in population health and is a visiting professor at the University of Technology Sydney and an adjunct professor with the University of Canberra.^[9] He was awarded a master's degree in Population Health at the Australian National University in December 1997. From November 2006 he has been a political and social columnist with the Canberra City News.^[10] In January 2008, Moore was appointed as chief executive officer of the Public Health Association of Australia^[2] and has advocated, on behalf of its members, for policies based on equity and the social determinants of health including for retention of the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre.^[11][12]

References