Shadow Ministry and Opposition
After the defeat of the Keating government, Sherry was elected Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and held many positions in the front bench including Shadow Minister for Finance and Shadow Assistant Treasurer. He also held Shadow Ministries for financial services, banking, superannuation, business regulation, consumer affairs and intergenerational finance.
In October 1997, however, he was accused of improper use of his Parliamentary travel allowance. Although he was later cleared of these allegations, it caused significant distress and he attempted suicide. He was later diagnosed with clinical depression. His suicide attempt again gained media attention after Greg Wilton became the first Australian Federal Parliamentarian to take his own life, in June 2000. At the time Sherry was open about his own experiences with depression from which he recovered in 1999.
Sherry took time away from the Shadow Ministry, but returned to the frontbench in 2001 as Shadow Minister for Retirement Incomes and Savings, a position he held until 2004. In 2004 Sherry was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Finance and Superannuation and in 2005 he was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Superannuation and Intergenerational Finance and Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services, positions he held until the 2007 election.
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