Summary heading
Duncan Kerr (CP 478)
Unregistered links
2 Nov 1988 - 13 Apr
1989: Joint Select Committee on
Corporations Legislation – Member
1989 – 1992 - Joint Commonwealth
and State Governments Taskforce on Tasmanian Employment (TASPACT) – Member
24 Mar 1993 - 11 Mar
1996: National Crime Authority
Inter-Governmental Committee - Chair
Summary heading
Hon Duncan
James Colquhoun Kerr SC
Career within Commonwealth
Duncan James Colquhoun Kerr
was born at Hobart on 26 February 1952 and educated at Claremont High School,
Hobart Matriculation College and the University of Tasmania. Prior to entering
federal politics, he was a Crown Counsel in the Solicitor-General's Department,
Tasmania (1980-1983), a Lecturer (1983-1984)
and Dean of the Faculty of Law (1985) at the University
of Papua New Guinea, Principal Solicitor
with the Aboriginal Legal Service Ltd, New
South Wales (1986) and Legal Officer for the Hobart
Community Legal Service (1987).
In June 2004 Kerr was appointed
Senior Counsel. He has maintained his practice rights and has appeared pro bono
in major public interest cases before the High Court of Australia. In July 2007
Duncan was
appointed Adjunct Professor of Law at the Queensland University of Technology.
Kerr was
elected to the House of Representatives as Member for the Tasmanian seat of Denison in July 1987. He
defeated Michael Hodgman QC, the sitting Liberal Party Member and a former
federal Minister, and has retained the seat for the Australian Labor Party
(ALP) at seven subsequent elections. He has been a Member of the ALP's National
Executive since 1998.
In the
Keating Government, Kerr was Attorney General (April 1993) and Minister for
Justice (1993-1996). His extensive Parliamentary committee service includes
with House of Representatives and Joint House committees relating to Privileges
(1987-1990 and 1999), Legal and Constitutional Affairs (1987-1993 and from
1996), Public Accounts and Selection (1990-1993), Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Affairs (Chair, 1990-1993), Corporations and Securities (1991-1993),
Family and Community Affairs (1996-1997), Environment, Recreation and the Arts
(1997-1998), National Crime Authority (1998-2003, now Australian Crime
Commission) and Environment and Heritage (since 2002).
Kerr has
also been Assistant to the Leader of the Opposition on Multicultural Affairs
(1996-1997); held the Opposition Shadow portfolios of Population and
Immigration (1996-97), Environment (1997-1998), Arts (1998-2001) and assisted
the Shadow Minister for Population (2000-01); been a member of several
Parliamentary delegations over the last 15 years, including to Papua New Guinea
and the Solomon Islands (2000); and was a member of the International
Commission of Jurists Mission to Papua New Guinea (2003).
He was
appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs from 3 December
2007 by the Rudd Labor Government.
On 11
September 2009 Duncan Kerr advised Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that he would not
contest the next federal election and that he intended to relinquish his
position as Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs. He retired from
politics on 19 July 2010.
Publications
DJC Kerr, Annotated Constitution of Papua New Guinea,
UPNG Press, Port Moresby, 1985
DJC Kerr, Essays of the Constitution, PNG 10th
Independence Committee, Port Moresby, 1985
DJC Kerr
(ed,), Reinventing Socialism, Pluto
Press, Leichhardt, NSW, 1992
DJC Kerr,
Elect the Ambassador! Building Democracy in a Globalised World, Pluto Press,
2001
Sources
Duncan Kerr
Website
http://www.duncankerr.com/subpage.php?target=Biography,
accessed 6 Oct 2009
Parliament
of Australia Website
http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au,
accessed 6 October 2009
Who’s Who in Australia
1998, p901