Peter James Breen (born 4 November 1947) is an Australian former politician. He was a solicitor before entering politics, achieving a Diploma of Law from

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. He was originally a member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

, serving as President of the Campbelltown Young Liberals 1971–1972. From 1995 to 1998 he was Secretary of the Australian Bill of Rights Group, and in 1998 joined Reform the Legal System. In the 1999 New South Wales election he was elected to 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 ...

. Breen joined the Labor Party on 5 May 2006, but resigned on 18 July to form the Human Rights Party. He unsuccessfully contested the 2007 New South Wales state election. In 2014 Breen became an adviser to Senator Ricky Muir of the

Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party The Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party was a List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia from 2013 to 2017. Ricky Muir held a seat for the party in the Australian Senate from 2013 to 2016. The party voluntarily de-regis ...

but was sacked on 5 August 2014. He has campaigned over an alleged

miscarriage of justice A miscarriage of justice occurs when an unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Innocent ...

in the conviction of Stephen Wayne 'Shorty' Jamieson for the 1988 murder of Janine Balding.

Renewable Energy Party

In 2016, Breen was a key person in the Renewable Energy Party and candidate for the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The powers, role and composition of the Senate are set out in Chap ...

to represent New South Wales in the

Australian federal election Elections in Australia take place periodically to elect the legislature of the Commonwealth of Australia, as well as for each Australian state and territory and for local government councils. Elections in all jurisdictions follow similar princ ...

. The Renewable Energy Party was an Australian

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

registered by the

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for the management and oversight of Australian federal elections, plebiscites, referendums and some trade union A ...

on 22 March 2016. In the 2016 federal election the Renewable Energy Party fielded two

senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

candidates in each of New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia, and a total of eight candidates for the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

in Victoria (4), Tasmania (3) and New South Wales (1), none of whom were elected. On 1 February 2018, the

issued a notice that it was considering deregistering the party on the grounds that it had ceased to have at least 500 members. On 26 March 2018, the party was deregistered due to failure to respond to the earlier notice.

References

1947 births Living people Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Place of birth missing (living people) Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 21st-century Australian politicians University of Sydney alumni {{Australia-Labor-NewSouthWales-MP-stub