It’s my pleasure to return as Labor’s candidate for the seat of Bragg, a community most dear to my heart and where my family’s roots extend back more than 60 years. My parents settled in Taylor Terrace, Rosslyn Park in the 1950s, where I grew up and remained until adulthood. My wife Debra and I have lived locally for almost 30 years. Other than a number of periods living and working overseas, I haven’t strayed – our two children, Millicent and Elliott, were born at Burnside Hospital and attended Burnside Primary School and Pembroke. Although they are now young adults living out of home, they remain nearby, as I hope they always will.
I joined the Labor Party in 1984 during the Hawke years. I believed that to make a difference in the world, I should join the political party that aligned most closely with my values. The Labor Party then, as today, stood for fairness, for equality, and for the principle that no-one should be left behind as our state and our country grew and prospered. I look forward to marking 40 years of continuous ALP membership in a couple of years’ time. I have for nearly 20 of those years served as a branch President at state and federal levels.
I was a law professor for 35 years, teaching criminology, commercial law, media law, and sports law across four countries. I have served as Dean at the UniSA Law School and remain an adjunct professor at UniSA Justice & Society. I have been a legal commentator on ABC local radio for 20 years and a regular contributor on legal matters for The Advertiser and The Conversation. I currently serve as President of the SA Council for Civil Liberties and President of the Friends of the State Library, among many other roles and appointments in the community.
In our spectacular part of the world, above all else I cherish the green spaces – our parks and nature areas are simply marvellous. I reckon one of the best parks in Australia is Hazelwood Park, where I can often be found of a weekend morning at Hazel’s Café kiosk eating one of their terrific breakfasts. The Burnside Library is another favourite spot – like so many other families in this community, ours has been visiting this magnificent resource centre for decades.
My policy passions are about fairness, justice and a good life for every South Australian –they include ensuring a high-quality education for all of our young people, a strong and well-resourced public health system, protecting our precious environment for future generations, strong investment in renewable energy, justice reform, aged care funding, and protecting civil liberties.
As a younger man I was a very keen footy player, but these days you’ll find me cycling instead. Debra and I live with our dog called Doug, who loves a walk in any one of our outstanding local parks and public open spaces.
If you want to know more about me, please feel free to get in touch – or head to the Burnside Library and borrow my autobiography, Life Actually: A Feast of 500-Word Memories, published in 2021 by local Adelaide publishing house, Moonglow Publishing.
