John Thwaites

Johnstone William "John" Thwaites (born 15 October 1955), is an Australian former politician, and served as Deputy Premier of the state of Victoria from 1999 to 2007.

Thwaites was born in Oxford, in the United Kingdom, and came to Australia as a child with his family.

He was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and Monash University, Melbourne, where he graduated in science and law.

He practised as a barrister before entering politics.

He was a ministerial advisor to Labor Party state government ministers Jim Kennan and Andrew McCutcheon before being elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the seat of Albert Park.

Thwaites was elected to the South Melbourne City Council in 1985 and served until 1993, and was Mayor in 1991–92.

He is married to Melanie Eagle, who was mayor of the neighbouring city of St Kilda at the same time.

Both councils are now part of the City of Port Phillip.

Thwaites and Eagle have one son.

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 belonged 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.

(“Austin in patient crisis, says Labor”, The Age, 3 October 1996.) Thwaites also highlighted concerns about privatisation of ambulance dispatching to a private company, Intergraph, which the Auditor General found “at best involved serious mismanagement or, at worst, constituted corrupt activity”.

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.

As Shadow Minister for Health, Thwaites campaigned against the Kennett Government’s cuts to health and the privatisation of ambulance services.

He used Freedom of Information documents to highlight long delays in hospital emergency departments and health budget cuts.

(“State backs Intergraph reports bid”, The Age, 3 September 1999).

The Intergraph affair and concerns about hospital privatisation and ambulance services were major issues in the 1999 state election.

(“Selloffs the big difference” The Age 9 September 1999. “Ambulance scandal threatens Kennett” The Age 28 September 1999).

In September 1999 Bracks polled surprisingly well in the election, and three rural independent members gave Labor the opportunity to govern as a minority government.

As Deputy Leader, Thwaites became Deputy Premier and was given the senior Health portfolio, with a mandate to increase funding to the public health system which had been the subject of cutbacks under the Liberal government.

He was also Minister for Planning from 1999 to February 2002.

Shortly after taking office, Thwaites cancelled the proposed privatisation of the Austin Hospital and announced plans for the government to rebuild the hospital with public funds.

(“Labor to cancel Austin hospital privatisation” The Age 28 October 1999)   (“Can the new government fix health? The Age 20 November 1999).

Like all state health ministers, he had only limited success in reducing waiting lists at public hospitals, but did succeed in restoring the numbers of nurses.

One of Thwaites first actions as Health Minister was to ban smoking in restaurants (“Butt out” Herald Sun 27 November 1999.)  He later introduced legislation to ban smoking in gaming venues.

(“Limits put on bayside high-rise” Herald Sun 14 December 1999.) He also initiated Melbourne 2030, a 30 year strategy plan for Melbourne.

(“Smokers butt out at pokies” Herald Sun 30 August 2002).

As Planning Minister, Thwaites put controls on high-rise development around Port Phillip Bay and introduced a residential planning code, Rescode, to preserve neighbourhood character in planning decisions.

After the November 2002 state election, at which Labor was returned with a record majority, Thwaites was appointed Minister for Environment, Water and Victorian Communities.

Thwaites’ term as Minister for Water coincided with the millennium drought in southeast Australia that put significant pressure on urban and rural water supplies.

Premier Steve Bracks and Thwaites led a major water saving campaign commencing in 2003 that  by 2006 had reduced water use per head by 22 per cent compared to the 1990s.

Thwaites introduced major reforms to water policy and legislation in Victoria including giving the environment a statutory right to water, reforming irrigation water rights and establishing sustainable water planning strategies.

He also oversaw programs to return environmental flows to the Murray, Snowy and Thomson rivers.