Peter Durack
Encyclopedia
Peter Drew Durack, QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...

 (20 October 1926 – 13 July 2008) was an Australian politician, representing the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

. He rose to become Attorney-General of Australia
Attorney-General of Australia
The Attorney-General of Australia is the first law officer of the Crown, chief law officer of the Commonwealth of Australia and a minister of the Crown. The Attorney-General is usually a member of the Federal Cabinet, but there is no constitutional requirement that this be the case since the...

.

He served in the Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...

 from 1 July 1970 to 30 June 1993. From 1987 to 1989, he was a joint Father of the Senate along with Arthur Gietzelt
Arthur Gietzelt
Arthur Thomas Gietzelt, AO is a former Australian politician and minister.Gietzelt was educated at Hurstville High School. He served in the armed forces in New Guinea during World War II from 1941 to 1945....

, and from 1989 until his retirement, he alone held this title.

Biography

Durack was educated at Aquinas College
Aquinas College, Perth
Aquinas College is a Catholic independent, day and boarding school for boys, located in Salter Point, Western Australia. Its sister school is Santa Maria Ladies College located in Attadale...

 and the University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...

. He was the state's 1949 Rhodes Scholar and studied law at Lincoln College
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...

, Oxford, where he later taught. From 1956 he worked as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...

 in Perth and in 1965 was elected into the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
Western Australian Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Perth....

 as the Member for Perth
Electoral district of Perth
The Electoral district of Perth is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Perth is named for the capital city of Western Australia whose central business district falls within its borders. It is one of the oldest electorates in Western Australia, with its first member...

, a seat he held until 1968. He moved to federal politics by winning one of the Senate seats in the 1970 Senate election
Australian Senate election, 1970
Half-senate elections were held in Australia on 21 November 1970.Independents: Reg Turnbull , Michael Townley , Syd Negus -See also:*Candidates of the Australian Senate election, 1970...

, taking office on 1 July 1971.

He was Minister for Repatriation
Minister for Veterans' Affairs (Australia)
The Australian Minister for Veterans' Affairs oversees income support, compensation, care and commemoration programs for more than 400,000 veterans and their widows, widowers and dependants....

 in the Fraser
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...

 government from July to October 1976, when the title of the portfolio was changed to Minister for Veterans' Affairs. In 1977 he was appointed Attorney-General, serving in that office until the Fraser government's defeat in 1983. During this time he was responsible for the passage of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Freedom of Information Act 1982
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 is Australian Commonwealth Freedom of Information legislation which gives members of the public rights of access to official documents of the Government of the Commonwealth and of its agencies.-Outline of the Act:...

; he had introduced a private member's bill on the same subject in 1972.

He was deputy Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest party not in government in a Westminster System of parliamentary government...

 in the Senate from 1983–87 and 1990–92.

In 1992 he failed to win preselection by his party for a further term, and his political career ended in June 1993.

He died in Perth on 13 July 2008.

Publications

Durack wrote several books, dealing with legal issues and the Mabo
Mabo v Queensland (1988)
Mabo v Queensland was a significant court case decided in the High Court of Australia on 8 December 1988. It found that the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act, which attempted to retrospectively abolish native title rights, was not valid according to the Racial Discrimination Act...

 court case, with which he was involved during his time as Attorney General.
  • Evidence. ISBN 0-644-01371-0 / ISBN 0644013710
  • The external affairs power ISBN 0-909536-47-3 / ISBN 0909536473
  • Mabo and after (with Tony Rutherford). ISBN 0-909536-36-8 / ISBN 0909536368

Family

Durack was a grandson of Kimberley pioneer Jeremiah Durack, who was an uncle of Michael Patrick Durack
Michael Durack
Michael Patrick Durack, was a pastoralist, and Western Australian pioneer. He was the son of Patrick Durack and Mary Costello, both Irish-Australians....

 (1865–1950). He was therefore a cousin of authors Mary
Mary Durack
Dame Mary Durack AC DBE was an Australian author and historian. She wrote Kings in Grass Castles and Keep Him My Country.-Childhood:...

 and Elizabeth Durack
Elizabeth Durack
Elizabeth Durack Clancy CMG, OBE was a Western Australian artist and writer.-Early life:Born in the Perth suburb of Claremont on 6 July 1915, she was a daughter of noted Kimberley pioneer, Michael Patrick Durack and his wife, Bessie Johnstone Durack. She was the younger sister of writer and...

.
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