John Thwaites (Australian Politician) - State Parliament

State Parliament

Thwaites entered Parliament at the 1992 election, as member for the inner city seat of Albert Park. Labor, having been in office for ten years, suffered a landslide defeat at the hands of the Liberal Party under Jeff Kennett. In the last three years of its term Labor under Joan Kirner had presided over a sharp recession and a series of financial disasters including the forced sale of the State Bank of Victoria, and the collapse of Pyramid Building Society. Most commentators expected Labor to be in opposition for many years.

In the greatly reduced Labor Caucus, Thwaites gained rapid promotion. He became Shadow Minister for Health in January 1994, Shadow Minister for Health and Community Services in April 1996, and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in December 1996. Thwaites belongs to neither of the dominant factions of the Victorian Labor Party, the right-wing Labor Unity or the left-wing Socialist Left, and was an acceptable compromise candidate as Deputy to the then Opposition Leader, John Brumby.

Labor was again heavily defeated at the 1996 election, and it became apparent that the party could not recover under Brumby's leadership. Thwaites had been a loyal deputy to Brumby, although in March 1999 he supported moves to have Brumby resign. Thwaites could not become Leader himself because he had a small factional base, but instead supported Steve Bracks for the leadership.