Malcolm James Washer (born 12 August 1945),

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n politician, was a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

from October 1998 to August 2013, representing the

Division of Moore The Division of Moore is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the States and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. History The Division was named after George Fletcher Moor ...

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 ...

. He was born in Bunbury,

, and was educated at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, graduating in 1970 with degrees in medicine and surgery. He was a general practitioner before entering politics. He is considered a moderate Liberal in a very conservative state and is supportive of socially liberal issues such as

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

. During 2010 and 2011 he was the contact for the Australian Parliamentary Group on Drug Law Reform (APGDLR), a cross party group of 100 MPs from Australian State and Commonwealth parliaments. The group was set up in 1993 after a meeting in Canberra convened by

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

(ACT Assembly) and

Ann Symonds Elizabeth Ann Symonds (; ''née'' Burley; 12 July 1939 – 15 November 2018) was an Australian politician. She was a Labor member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1982 to 1998. Biography Born in Murwillumbah, Ann Burley trained ...

(MLC, NSW). In August 2011, he announced he would not be contesting the next federal election. In March 2014, Washer announced his resignation as chair of the Alcohol and Other Drug Council of Australia. He said the reason was the "ill-informed" decision of Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash to cut the organisation's funding without notice, noting that her decision was "a bloody tragedy" which "wasn't subject to any review ... it was dumb advising dumber, and dumb won." As at January 2018, Washer was chair of ASX-listed AusCann, a medical cannabis company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Washer, Mal 1945 births Living people Australian general practitioners Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Moore People from Bunbury, Western Australia Australian MPs 1998–2001 Australian MPs 2001–2004 Australian MPs 2004–2007 Australian MPs 2007–2010 Australian MPs 2010–2013