Michael Yabsley

Michael Robert Yabsley (born 30 June 1956) is a former Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing the electorates of Bligh from 1984 to 1988 and Vaucluse from 1988 to 1994.

Yabsley was born in Lismore, and attended private schools in the area. He attended the Australian National University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in political science. He went on to work as a public relations manager for the Livestock and Grain Producers Association. On 5 November 1983, he married Susan Clatworthy, with whom he had two children.[1]

As a young man, at the age of 24 Yabsley was a candidate for the 1980 federal election for Fraser in the Australian Capital Territory for the Liberal Party. However he was defeated by Labor's Ken Fry. In 1984, Yabsley defeated Labor MP Fred Miller to win the NSW state seat of Bligh in Sydney for the Liberal Party. However, in 1988 he was defeated by Independent candidate Clover Moore. The death of Ray Aston, the Liberal member for Vaucluse, allowed Yabsley to re-enter parliament; he was elected unopposed in the by-election. He was immediately made Minister for Corrective Services, and in 1991 was promoted to Minister for State Development and Tourism. He left the ministry in 1992 and resigned from parliament in 1994.[1]

Yabsley resigned from the ministry in protest about the circumstances that brought the resignation of Premier Nick Greiner and Environment Minister Tim Moore forced upon by the three independents who held the balance of power. One of those independents was Clover Moore who had ousted him in Bligh at the 1988 election. The presence of the independents in Parliament would also be a factor to his eventual resignation from Parliament. Ironically just as Moore was responsible for the end of Yabsley's first ministerial and parliamentary career, she indirectly caused the end of Yabsley's ministerial and, eventually, parliamentary career.

He came out as gay in 2020.[2]

References

1. "Mr Michael Robert Yabsley (1956- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
2. "'I lived with a lot of denial': former politician Michael Yabley's new life", Sydney Morning Herald, 6 June 2020. Accessed 31 July 2020.