Demetrios "Jim" Fouras, (8 March 1938 – 12 November 2021) was an Australian politician. He was

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland is elected by the members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly to preside over sittings of the Assembly and to maintain orderly proceedings. The Speaker must be a member of the Legislative ...

Early life

Born in Manesi,

Kalavryta Kalavryta ( el, Καλάβρυτα) is a town and a municipality in the mountainous east-central part of the regional unit of Achaea, Greece. The town is located on the right bank of the river Vouraikos, south of Aigio, southeast of Patras an ...

, Greece, he migrated to

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

at the age of ten with his brother. His knowledge of English was poor and he knew less than 100 words. He received his secondary education at

The Southport School , motto_translation = Let him who deserves the palm of victory bear it. , established = , type = Independent early learning, primary and secondary day and boarding school , denomination = Anglican , headmaster = Andrew Hawkins , f ...

and was awarded the school's chemistry prize. He attended the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = ...

and graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

(1963) and a

Bachelor of Economics The Bachelor of Economics (BEc or BEcon), or the "Bachelor of Applied Economics", is a bachelor's degree awarded by many universities and colleges for completion of an undergraduate program in economics, econometrics, or applied economics; the ...

(1972). Fouras was a research chemist and then a marketing economist with the Department of Primary Industries.

Politics

In 1977, Fouras was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembl ...

as the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member for

South Brisbane South Brisbane is an inner southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , South Brisbane had a population of 7,196 people. Geography The suburb is on the southern bank of the Brisbane River, bounded to the north-west ...

. He held the seat until 1986, when he was defeated for preselection by Anne Warner. He returned to the Assembly in 1989, winning the seat of Ashgrove, which he held until his retirement in 2006. Fouras was Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 1990 to 1996. Fouras' tenure as Speaker would have ended earlier in 1995 when he was not renominated by the

caucus A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to a meeting ...

as its candidate for Speaker, choosing instead

Henry Palaszczuk Heinrich Palaszczuk (, Polish: ; born 12 January 1947) is a former Labor member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, and minister of the Beattie Government of Queensland. He was elected as the member for Archerfield in 1984, and held t ...

. The party had just been re-elected to government at the

1995 Queensland state election Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 15 July 1995 to elect the 89 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The Labor Party, which had been in power since the 1989 election and led by Premier Wayne Goss, was electe ...

with a one-seat majority. The dumping of Fouras as Speaker by his ALP colleagues raised the prospect of him being re-elected with the support of the Coalition, as he would have had the numbers to beat Palaszczuk on the floor of Parliament. Fearing that outcome, the ALP withdrew Palaszczuk's candidacy for Speaker and Fouras was re-elected with the support of his ALP colleagues. Upon his re-election as Speaker, the Coalition claimed that even if the ALP had not reversed its decision on Fouras, he would have been re-elected over Palaszczuk, not just with the support of the Coalition but also some ALP MPs. The claim that some ALP members would have broken the party line to support Fouras has been disputed by the ALP. During this renewed tenure as Speaker,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

Liz Cunningham Elizabeth Anne Cunningham is an Australian politician. She was an independent member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1995 to 2015, representing the electorate of Gladstone. A conservative MLA in a traditionally Labor district, Cu ...

mostly sided with the Coalition in parliamentary votes. With the government having a one-seat majority, on those occasions Fouras as Speaker had to use his casting vote in order for the government to win the

division Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military * Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

. Fouras' casting vote had not been required previously because before the 1995 election the Government had had a 19-seat majority. In February 1996, the ALP lost its one-seat majority after the loss of the Mundingburra by-election and the

Goss Government The Goss Ministry was a Ministry of the Government of Queensland, led by Labor Premier Wayne Goss. It commenced on 7 December 1989, five days after the Cooper Ministry, led by Premier Russell Cooper of the National Party, was defeated at th ...

resigned its commission. Fouras likewise resigned as Speaker.

Death

Fouras died from a heart attack on 12 November 2021 at the age of 83 in Brisbane, Queensland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fouras, Jim 1938 births 2021 deaths People from Kalavryta Greek emigrants to Australia Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Speakers of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland Members of the Order of Australia University of Queensland alumni People educated at the Southport School 21st-century Australian politicians