Brendan Smyth (politician)

Brendan Smyth MLA
Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 February 1998 Serving with Wood/Burch, Hargreaves/Gentleman, Kaine/Pratt/Doszpot/Seselja/Lawder, Osborne/MacDonald/Bresnan/Wall
Constituency	Brindabella
Member of the Australian Parliament for Canberra
In office 25 March 1995 – 2 March 1996
Preceded by	Ros Kelly
Succeeded by	Bob McMullan
Personal details
Born	Brendan Michael Smyth 27 July 1959 Sydney, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia
Website	Profile at CanberraLiberals.org

Brendan Michael Smyth (born 27 July 1959), an Australian politician, is a member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Brindabella for the Liberal Party since 1998. From 2002 to 2006 Smyth was the ACT Leader of the Opposition and served briefly as the Deputy Chief Minister during 2000 and 2001. He has held the ACT portfolios Urban Services, Business, Tourism and the Arts, and Police and Emergency Services.^[1]

Prior to his election to the ACT Legislative Assembly served briefly as the Member for Canberra in the Australian House of Representatives, also representing the Liberals.^[1]

Career

Smyth was born in Sydney and moved to Canberra in May 1969. He worked at the National Library of Australia until 1995 when, representing the Liberal Party, he contested the 1995 by-election for the House of Representatives seat of Canberra. Normally a safe Labor seat, its previous member Ros Kelly had left under a cloud, having been forced to resign her ministry a year earlier over the sports rorts affair, and Smyth received a 16.1% swing to claim the seat.^[2]

At the Australian federal election on 2 March 1996, Smyth contested the new federal House of Representatives seat of Namadgi, essentially the southern portion of his old seat, even though it had been drawn with a notional Labor majority of 10.9 percent. He was defeated by Labor's Annette Ellis.^{[3] [4]} To date, he is the last non-Labor member to represent an ACT-based seat.

He subsequently shifted to territory politics, winning election to the Legislative Assembly in the 1998 election representing the Tuggeranong-based multimember electorate of Brindabella.^[5] He was the Opposition Leader for the ACT Liberal Party in the 2005 ACT elections, but lost the election.^[1]

See also

• Humphries Ministry

References

1. "Brendan Smyth". Member profile. Legislative Assembly for the ACT. 26 November 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
2. Carr, Adam (25 March 1995). "By-elections 1993–1996". Australian Federal By-elections. Psephos. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
3. Carr, Adam. "Divisions of Canberra, Fraser and Namadgi". 1996 Australian Federal Election. Psephos. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
4. Green, Antony (2007). "Canberra (electorate)". Australia Votes 2007: Electorate profiles. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 14 November 2007.
5. Newman, Gerard (1998). "Research Note 37 1997–98: Against The Odds: The 1998 ACT Election". Parliament of Australia: Parliamentary Library. Retrieved 14 November 2007.

External links

• Canberra Liberals People: Brendan Smyth