Barry James Hodge (born 16 February 1944) is a former Australian politician who was a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

from 1977 to 1989, representing the seat of Melville. Hodge was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, but moved to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

with his family as a child, where he attended

CBC Fremantle Christian Brothers College Fremantle is an Independent Catholic secondary school for young men, located in Ellen Street site, in the coastal community surrounding Fremantle, Western Australia. The school traces its origins back to 1882, and in ...

before going on to Perth Technical College. After leaving school, he worked as a broadcasting technician at various local radio and television stations, including 6IX,

6PR 6PR, known as 6PR Perth, is a commercial radio station based in Perth, Western Australia. Owned by Nine Entertainment, its focus is on news, talk and sport, and is Perth's only commercial talkback radio station. It commenced broadcasting on 14 ...

, and TVW. Hodge joined the Labor Party in 1965, and subsequently became involved in the union movement. He served as president of the Hotel and Club Caterers' Union from 1970 to 1972 (a predecessor of the Federated Liquor and Allied Trades Union), and as assistant state secretary of the Labor Party from 1975 to 1977.Barry James Hodge
– Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 6 May 2016. Hodge entered parliament at the 1977 state election, replacing John Tonkin, a former

premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

, in the seat of Melville. He retained the seat with an increased majority at the 1980 election. After the 1980 election, Hodge was appointed to the shadow cabinet of Ron Davies. He remained in the shadow cabinet when Brian Burke replaced Davies as party leader in 1981, and following Labor's victory at the 1983 election was appointed

Minister for Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

in the Burke ministry. The ministry was reshuffled after the 1986 election, with Hodge becoming Minister for the Environment and Minister for Conservation and Land Management. He retained those positions after Burke's retirement in 1988, and was also made Minister for Waterways in the new ministry led by

Peter Dowding Peter McCallum Dowding SC (born 6 October 1943) is an Australian lawyer and former politician who was the premier of Western Australia from 25 February 1988 until his resignation on 12 February 1990 due to a leadership spill. He was a member o ...

. However, at the 1989 state election, Hodge was defeated in Melville by the Liberal candidate,

Doug Shave Douglas James Shave (4 January 1947 – 5 August 2017) was an Australian politician. He was born in Perth and was a hotel and business proprietor before entering politics. He played three games of Australian rules football for Claremont in 1 ...

. The two candidates finished equal on the

first-preference vote A first-preference is a voter's most-preferred candidate. In certain ranked systems such as first preference plurality, ranked-choice voting (RCV), and the single transferable vote, first preferences for a candidate are considered most important ...

(with 8,159 or 44.3% each), but Shave went on to win by 32 votes (0.2%) on the

two-party-preferred vote In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP), is the result of an opinion poll or a projection of an election result where preferences are distributed to one of the two major parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal/Nati ...

. After leaving parliament, Hodge was appointed chairman of the Lands and Forests Commission (a state government agency), serving from 1989 to 1994. He resigned from the Labor Party in 1992, and at the 1993 state election contested the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

as an independent. Standing for the South Metropolitan region, he received 2.91% of the vote, but was not elected.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodge, Barry 1944 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia Australian trade unionists Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Politicians from Melbourne Ministers for health (Western Australia)