Bruce McDonald (Australian politician)
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Bruce McDonald AM |
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|---|---|
| Leader of the Opposition of New South Wales | |
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In office 1 June 1981 – 12 October 1981 |
|
| Deputy | Jim Cameron |
| Preceded by | John Mason |
| Succeeded by | John Dowd |
| Member of the New South Wales Parliament for Kirribilli |
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In office 1 May 1976 – 28 August 1981 |
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| Preceded by | John Waddy |
| Succeeded by | District abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
26 May 1935 Drummoyne, New South Wales |
| Political party | Liberal Party of Australia |
Bruce John McDonald, AM (born 26 May 1935) was a New South Wales politician, Leader of the Opposition and Leader for the Liberal Party of New South Wales. McDonald was Leader of the Opposition of New South Wales, Australia from 1 June 1981 to 12 October 1981, when he lost the election to Labor Premier, Neville Wran. McDonald lost the parliamentary seat he contested at the same election.
McDonald was born in the Sydney suburb of Drummoyne in 1935 and was educated at Drummoyne Boys' High School and Sydney Technical High School. He studied civil engineering and urban planning at Sydney Technical College and the University of Sydney and was later employed as a Cadet Engineer for the Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board from 1951 to 1956. Subsequently, he became a Member of the Institute of Engineers and the Royal Australian Planning Institute. He served as the Foundation President of the Urban Development Institute of Australia from 1962 to 1964 and again from 1974 to 1976, becoming a Life Member.
He was elected for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Kirribilli, at a 1976 by-election, through which he defeated the sitting member John Waddy for preselection before the 1976 contest. Waddy resigned from the party and contested the seat as an independent, but lost by a large margin to McDonald.
As a member, McDonald served in various Parliamentary committees and Shadow portfolios, including as Shadow Treasurer, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Business and Consumer Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. McDonald was then elected as Deputy Leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party, and was Deputy Leader of the Opposition in 1978 under Leader John Marsden Mason, until Mason was deposed by a party poll in late May 1981. Elected the party's leader on 1 June 1981, McDonald led the party up to its massive defeat at the 1981 election. His seat was abolished, and he opted to follow most of his constituents into the newly created seat of North Shore. However, he was defeated by the independent candidate, Ted Mack. McDonald's defeat in North Shore meant that the 1981 election was the second election in a row in which the sitting Opposition Leader had failed to win a seat in Parliament after Peter Coleman in 1978. As McDonald had made an unsuccessful attempt to move to another seat in the Legislative Assembly, it will not be until Luke Foley in 2015 that a sitting Opposition Leader succeeded in moving to a new seat in the Legislative Assembly.
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