Robin Gray (Australian politician)
|
The Honourable Robin Gray |
|
|---|---|
| 37th Premier of Tasmania | |
|
In office 26 May 1982 – 29 June 1989 |
|
| Preceded by | Harry Holgate |
| Succeeded by | Michael Field |
| Constituency |
Wilmot (1976–1984) Lyons (1984–1995) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
1 March 1940 Kew, Victoria, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party | Liberal Party of Australia |
| Alma mater | University of Melbourne |
| Occupation | Agricultural consultant |
Robin Trevor Gray (born 1 March 1940) is a former Australian politician who was Premier of Tasmania from 1982 to 1989. A Liberal, he was elected Liberal state leader in 1981 and in 1982 defeated the Labor government of Harry Holgate on a policy of "state development," particularly the building of the Franklin Dam, a hydroelectric dam on the Franklin River. He was only the second non-Labor premier to hold the post in 48 years, and the first in 51 years to govern in majority.
Robin Gray was born in Kew, a suburb of Melbourne. Once he had completed high school, he won a scholarship to agricultural college and completed a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne. His qualifications led to a job as an agricultural consultant at a firm in Victoria's Western District. In 1965, the firm sent Gray to northern Tasmania to operate a branch of the firm in Launceston.
During 1976, the state leader of the Liberal Party, Max Bingham, convinced Gray to stand as a candidate in the state election for that year. Gray ended up out-polling three sitting Liberal members in Wilmot. Bingham resigned as leader following his party's poor performance at the 1979 election, which resulted in a marked swing away from the Liberals. Gray was elected Deputy Leader under Geoff Pearsall, and when Pearsall resigned in 1981 for unexplained personal reasons, Gray took over the party's leadership.
The campaign on which Gray embarked, to build the Franklin Dam, aroused protests from environmentalists, led by Dr Bob Brown (later a Senator). Gray in 1982 allied with militant left wing FEDFA trade union leader Kelvin McCoy to form in November 1982 the Organisation for Tasmanian Development (OTD) which was directly associated with notable stickers seen on cars in Tasmania like Doze in a Greenie: help Fertilize the South-West, If It's Brown, Flush It, and Keep Warm This Winter:Burn a Greenie. Gray and McCoy praised each other publicly in their promotion of the Gordon-below-Franklin dam. One of the more notable events of Gray's involvement with the OTD was the 3,000-strong rally in Queenstown on 11 December 1982, which included former Premier Eric Reece. Despite Reece's ALP background, Gray praised Reece as "the greatest living Tasmanian."
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