Peter Baldwin (politician)

Peter Jeremy Baldwin (born 12 April 1951)[1] is a former Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1983 to 1998.

The Honourable Peter Baldwin
Member of the Australian Parliament for Sydney
In office 5 March 1983 – 31 August 1998
Preceded by	Les McMahon
Succeeded by	Tanya Plibersek
Personal details
Born	12 April 1951 Aldershot, England
Nationality	English Australian
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Occupation	Activist

Baldwin was born in Aldershot, England. His family moved to Australia in 1958.[2] He attended Normanhurst Boys' High School in Sydney,[2] and later received a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Arts from Macquarie University.[1]

Baldwin was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1975 to 1982.[3] In the 1970s he was prominent as a left-wing activist in the Australian Labor Party (ALP), in which position he sought to break the grip over the corrupt right-wing machine that controlled many Labor subdivisions in and near central Sydney. In the course of his campaign he uncovered substantial and illegal doctoring of the party's account books in the Enmore branch of the ALP.

On 16 July 1980, he was brutally assaulted at his home in the nearby Sydney suburb of Marrickville. Pictures of his battered face dominated the front pages of newspapers around the nation, and led to increased pressure for reform of the party. No one was ever charged with the assault. Subsequently, it was alleged that the bashing was undertaken by underworld figure Tom Domican acting on suggestions from the Labor state secretary at the time, Graham Richardson.[4] In March 2007 Richardson won a settlement against Fairfax of A$50,000 for defamation on the basis of this report.[5]

After leaving state politics, Baldwin was selected for the federal Division of Sydney following the deselection of the previous right-aligned MP, Les McMahon. He ran on a platform similar to that advocated by Tony Benn in the British Labour Party, arguing for a revival of Labor's commitment to state ownership and for the implementation of industrial democracy.[6] He held the seat from 1983 to 1998. He served as Minister for Employment and Education Services in April 1990, Minister for Higher Education and Employment Services from May 1990 to March 1993, and Minister for Social Security from March 1993 to the defeat of the Keating government in March 1996.[1]

Later career

After leaving politics, Baldwin developed and co-founded Debategraph in March 2008, a web-based collaborative argument visualisation tool for mapping complex public policy debates which is used by the White House,[7] the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office,[8] and the Amanpour series on CNN.[9] He chairs the Blackheath Philosophy Forum.[10]

References

1. "Baldwin, the Hon. Peter Jeremy". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 30 May 2007.
2. Wright, Tony (19 July 1997). "The man they couldn't bash out of politics to quit prized Labor seat". The Sydney Morning Herald.
3. "Mr Peter Jeremy Baldwin (1951- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
4. McClymont, Kate (25 November 2005). "Lid lifted on the ugly '80s". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 May 2007.
5. Norington, Brad (6 March 2007). "Richo wins $50k from Fairfax for defamation". The Australian. Retrieved 30 May 2007.
6. Daniel, Nicholas (13 November 2020). "Labor's Anthony Albanese Is Not a Friend of Australia's Left — And He Never Was". Jacobin (magazine). Retrieved 17 November 2020.
7. Noveck, Beth (5 June 2009). "Open Government Brainstorm: Collaboration in Action". The White House Blog. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
8. "Nuclear debategraph". Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Debategraph. May 2010. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
9. "Amanpour CNN". CNN/Debategraph. 30 April 2010. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
10. "2018 program". Blackheath Philosophy Forum. Retrieved 30 November 2018.