Barrie John Unsworth (born 16 April 1934), is an Australian politician. He served as the 36th Premier of New South Wales from July 1986 to March 1988 as leader of the Australian Labor Party and local member for the Electoral district of Rockdale.
Early years
Unsworth was born in Dubbo and educated at Canterbury High School, leaving school at 15. He married Pauline Hennessy in 1955 and they had one daughter and three sons, one of who has died. He has nine grandchildren. Mr. Unsworth built his career in the New South Wales labour movement through the Electrical Trades Union. He was Secretary of the Labor Council of New South Wales from 1979 to 1984.
Political career
Unsworth was elected a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1978. After the retirement of Premier Neville Wran in May 1986, he was elected leader of the NSW Labor Party and became Premier. As Premiers are required by convention to be members of the Legislative Assembly, Brian Bannon, member for Rockdale, resigned to create a by-election, held in July 1986, which Unsworth contested and narrowly won. He was Premier until the Labor Party's landslide defeat in the 1988 elections.[1] Unsworth did not contest the 1991 election.
Since 1991 Unsworth has had little political involvement, although he was commissioned by the NSW Government to conduct a formal review of public bus services in 2003 and 2004 [2]. In 2008 he headed a committee that considered the privatisation of the New South Wales' electricity industry.[3] The committee and Unsworth supported the sale.[4]
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