Gerry Bates

Gerard Maxwell Bates (born 13 September 1950) is an Australian environmental lawyer and academic, and former politician.

Gerry Bates
Member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly
for Franklin
In office
8 February 1986 – 4 May 1995
Personal details
Born
Gerard Maxwell Bates

(1950-09-13) 13 September 1950
Lancashire, England, United Kingdom
Political partyTasmanian Greens
Alma materUniversity of Birmingham
ProfessionEnvironmental lawyer, legal academic

Early life and education

Bates was born in Lancashire, England in 1950. He studied at the University of Birmingham where he qualified for a Bachelor of Laws (LLB)(Hons) and a PhD.

Bates went on to become a tutor at the University of Birmingham and a senior lecturer at Birmingham Polytechnic.

He later emigrated to Australia, and was a lecturer in environmental law at the University of Tasmania until Bob Brown convinced him to run for parliament as a Green Independent in 1986 Tasmanian state election.[1]

Political career

In 1986, he was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly for Franklin as an Independent Green. At the 1989 election, three other Greens were elected in addition to Brown and Bates (Lance Armstrong, Di Hollister and Christine Milne). The Greens held the balance of power, and agreed to give support to the Labor Party to form a minority government when they signed the Labor–Green Accord. In 1992, the five Independent Greens in the House formed the Tasmanian Greens.

Bates resigned from the House of Assembly on 4 May 1995 to contest Queenborough in the Legislative Council, but was unsuccessful.[2]

Academic career

Bates is an adjunct professor at the Sydney Law School, the law faculty of the University of Sydney.[3] He is also an adjunct professor at the Australian Centre for Environmental Law (ACEL), part of the Australian National University.[4]

Bates has been a member of the Board of the Environment Protection Authority of NSW since 1996, a member of the State of the Environment Advisory Council since 2004, and a Director of Kimbriki Environmental Enterprises, a regional waste recovery centre and landfill on Sydney's Northern Beaches, since 2006.

Bates is author of Environmental Law in Australia, Corporate Liability for Pollution" and "Pollution Law in Australia. He is also Editor of the Environment and Planning Law Journal.

Bates received a special award from the National Environmental Law Association in 1994 for Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Law.

References
  1. Hill, Stuart (2001): Ecological pioneers: a social history of Australian ecological thought and action, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00956-1.
  2. Parliament of Tasmania (2005). "Bates, Gerard Maxwell". The Parliament of Tasmania from 1856. Parliament of Tasmania. Retrieved 16 March 2009.
  3. Conferred Titles, Sydney Law School, 7 July 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
  4. The Australian Centre for Environmental Law Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Australian National University.
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