Michael John Moore (born 2 April 1950) is an Australian public health leader, academic and former politician. He was an

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member of the

Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory, known in short as the ACT Legislative Assembly, is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It sits in the Legislative Assembly Building, Canberra, Leg ...

for four terms, from 1989 to 2001. He served as Australia's first independent minister as Minister for Health and Community Care from 1998 to 2001 in the Liberal minority government led by

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

Kate Carnell Anne Katherine Carnell (née Knowlman; born 30 May 1955) is an Australian businesswoman and former Liberal Party politician, who served as the third Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) from 1995 to 2000. Early life and ...

and later, Gary Humphries.

Early life and education

Moore holds a post-graduate diploma in education, a master's degree in population health, and a PhD from the

University of Canberra The University of Canberra (UC) is a public university, public research university with its main campus located in Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The campus is from Belconnen Town Centre, and from Canberra's Civic, Australian ...

. His master's degree in population health is from the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in 1997. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health, a visiting professor at the

University of Technology, Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1988, though its origins as a technical institution can be traced back t ...

and an adjunct professor with the University of Canberra. Before politics, Moore was a high school teacher at Dickson College, and an Army reservist.

Politics

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, Moore was elected as a

Residents Rally The Residents Rally (RR), officially known as the Residents Rally for Canberra Inc and also known simply as the Rally, was an Australian political party that was active during the early years of self-government in the Australian Capital Territor ...

member to the first multi-member single-constituency

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

ACT Legislative Assembly. No party had won a majority, and Rosemary Follett's Labor Party formed a minority government. He was re-elected for a second term at the single-constituency 1992 general election with

Helen Szuty Helen Margaret Szuty (born 3 September 1957) is a former Australian politician. She was an Independent member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly from 1992 to 1995. Education Szuty graduated with a BA from the University of ...

as part of the Michael Moore Independent Group, and at the

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

general elections as Moore Independents. He represented the electorate of Molonglo. He was Minister for Housing, Corrections and Children's Services and was Manager of Government Business. He chaired the Australian Ministerial Councils for both Health and Corrections. Moore was a social progressive who was responsible for the legalisation of prostitution, the decriminalisation of cannabis and was a strong advocate for trialling the provision of heroin to dependent users. He was a joint founder of the Australian Parliamentary Group on Drug Law Reform, the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation and sponsored the early meetings of the group Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform.

Other positions

Since 2006, he has been a political and social columnist with the ''Canberra City News''. From 2008 until 2018, Moore served as chief executive officer of the Public Health Association of Australia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Michael Australian schoolteachers Australian columnists 1950 births Living people Members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly Residents Rally members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly Independent members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians Australian public health doctors