Peter Reith

The Honourable Peter Reith BEc, LLB (Monash)
Minister for Defence
In office 30 January 2001 – 26 November 2001
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	John Moore
Succeeded by	Robert Hill
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
In office 21 October 1998 – 30 January 2001
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	David Kemp
Succeeded by	Tony Abbott
Minister for Small Business
In office 18 July 1997 – 30 January 2001
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Geoff Prosser
Succeeded by	Ian Macfarlane
Leader of the House
In office 11 March 1996 – 8 October 2001
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Kim Beazley
Succeeded by	Tony Abbott
Minister for Industrial Relations
In office 11 March 1996 – 18 July 1997
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Laurie Brereton
Succeeded by	Himself (Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations)
Manager of Opposition Business in the House
In office 31 January 1995 – 11 March 1996
Leader	John Howard
Preceded by	John Howard
Succeeded by	Simon Crean
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party
In office 24 March 1990 – 13 March 1993
Leader	John Hewson
Preceded by	Fred Chaney
Succeeded by	Michael Wooldridge
Deputy Leader of the Opposition
In office 24 March 1990 – 13 March 1993
Leader	John Hewson
Preceded by	Fred Chaney
Succeeded by	Michael Wooldridge
Member of the Australian Parliament for Flinders
In office 1 December 1984 – 10 November 2001
Preceded by	Bob Chynoweth
Succeeded by	Greg Hunt
In office 4 December 1982 – 5 March 1983
Preceded by	Philip Lynch
Succeeded by	Bob Chynoweth
Personal details
Born	(1950-07-15) 15 July 1950 Melbourne, Victoria
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia
Alma mater	Monash University
Profession	Lawyer Politician

Peter Keaston Reith (born 15 July 1950) is a former Australian politician and lawyer. He was a Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.

Early life

Born in Melbourne, Reith was educated at Brighton Grammar School and at Monash University, from which he obtained bachelor's degrees in economics and law. He then practised as a solicitor first in Melbourne and then at Cowes, a small town on Phillip Island. First elected as a Councillor of the Shire of Phillip Island from 1976, he was Shire President in his last year on the Council in 1981. Whilst living on Phillip Island Reith was behind the establishment of Newhaven College, an independent school on Phillip Island. He was also the key proponent for the establishment of the penguin research facility.

Political life

He joined the Liberal Party in 1966. Representing that party, Reith entered the House of Representatives via a by-election in December 1982, caused by the resignation of former Deputy Liberal Leader Sir Phillip Lynch. He did not attend Parliament to be sworn in when he had the chance, and lost the seat of Flinders only three months later at the March 1983 general election. He regained the seat in the December 1984 election, which saw a substantial swing towards the Liberals (though not enough to win them government), and he continued to hold the seat for the next 17 years.

Except for a few months in 1993, Reith was a shadow minister from 1987 until 1996. His posts included Shadow Minister for Housing, Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation and then Shadow Attorney-General in 1988; in this capacity, he led the successful "no" campaign at the 1988 referendum.He was also Shadow Minister for Defence and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. After the defeat of Andrew Peacock at the 1990 federal election, and Peacock's subsequent resignation from the Liberal leadership, Reith sought the leadership himself, but was defeated by John Hewson, who won 62 votes to 13.^[1] Immediately thereafter Reith was elected deputy opposition leader and appointed Shadow Treasurer, a position he held from 1990 to 1993. Along with Hewson, Reith was one of the architects of the Liberal Party's "Fightback" policy, including the Goods and Services Tax. He resigned as Shadow Treasurer after the Liberals were defeated in the 1993 election. In addition, he lost the deputy Liberal leadership in the post-election ballot, and was replaced by Michael Wooldridge. Despite the fact that Reith was the incumbent deputy leader, Reith had five challengers to his position including Wooldridge and Reith did not win enough votes to make to it to the final ballot which saw Wooldridge elected as the new deputy.

Following the landslide victory of John Howard at the 1996 election, Reith became Minister for Industrial Relations and leader of the House. He was one of the best-known and most influential members of Howard's cabinet. His responsibilities involved drafting and implementing the government's industrial relations policy, and he is perhaps best known for the significant productivity reforms which followed the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute. Reith's handling of the dispute, in which he openly supported Patrick Corporation in its contest with the Maritime Union of Australia, led to criticism from unions^[2] and the Australian Labor Party (ALP).^[3] Reith also introduced and implemented reforms to the Commonwealth public service, a significant package of reforms for small business and an innovative employment programme for indigenous Australians. In 2000 Reith was embroiled in an investigation over the use of a phone card with a bill totalling $50,000 AUD. Reith admitted that about $1,000 of phone calls were attributed to his son's access to the PIN associated with the phone card.^[4]

Leading up to the Australian republic referendum in 1999, Reith advocated for Australia becoming a republic, although he favoured a direct-election style republican model.^[5]

Howard transferred Reith to the Defence portfolio in 2000. The following year, Reith announced his impending retirement, and did not contest the 2001 election. Late in the election campaign Reith became embroiled in the "Children Overboard affair", in which the government made claims that asylum seekers had thrown children overboard in a ploy to secure passage to Australia, and failed to correct the record when advised there was no evidence for the claims. Reith defended his actions. He made public statements about this matter in the documentary series The Howard Years, which screened in Australia in November and December 2008, in Leaky Boat in July 2011 and in the 2012 Logie award winning documentary "Go back to where you came from". Reith was succeeded as Liberal MP for Flinders by Greg Hunt and as Minister of Defence by Senator Robert Hill.

After politics

After leaving parliament, Reith had a number of part-time interests, including advising a Sydney government relations firm, Tenix, a major defence supplier and others. From 2003 to 2009 he was an executive director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (based in London); in this capacity he represented Australia, the Republic of Korea, Egypt and New Zealand. While in London, Reith was also a member of an independent commission that reported to the Cameron Opposition on UK tax reform.

During 2011, after writing a report for the Liberal Party on the 2010 election, Reith challenged Alan Stockdale (who in the 1990s had been State Treasurer of Victoria) for the presidency of the Liberal Party. In that contest, Reith lost to Stockdale by just one vote: 56 to 57. Liberal leader Tony Abbott effectively made his vote for Stockdale public, when he was recorded on camera showing his vote to Stockdale. In 2013 Reith was Chairman of the Victorian Gas Market Review which concluded with the presentation of his report to the Napthine Government.

From 2014 Reith has been writing weekly for The Sydney Morning Herald and is a political commentator for Sky News Australia, appearing regularly on AM Agenda and The Cabinet.^[6] Reith began co-hosting a temporary format with Peter Beattie in April 2016 as a replacement for Richo while that program's host Graham Richardson was on leave to have major surgery.^[7]

In 1983, members of the Australian rock group This Is Serious Mum sent him a letter inviting him to their band to play the triangle. Similar letters were also sent to Paul Keating and Eddie Van Halen. In 2001, the band would cast him as the lead villain in their rock opera 2Pot Screama.

References