Andrew Murray (politician)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrew James Marshall Murray (born 29 January 1947), Australian politician, has been an Australian Democrats member of the Australian Senate since July 1996, representing Western Australia.
Murray was born in Hove, in the United Kingdom. In 1951 he was sent as a child migrant to the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where he was educated before going to university in South Africa. He continued his education at Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar 1971), where he gained a Master of Arts degree.
Returning to Africa, Murray worked as an executive in large corporations, then ran his own businesses. He also worked as a consultant, lecturer and industry journalist and served in the Rhodesian Air Force. He was deported from South Africa in 1968 for opposing the apartheid policies of the white minority régime. The deportation order was withdrawn in 1977. Murray migrated to Australia in 1989.
In the Senate, Murray has gained a reputation as an intelligent and thoughtful debater. He incurred opposition from many party members when his support helped carry the conservative coalition's Goods and Services Tax bills in 1999. He has announced that he will not seek re-election and retire (in the normal course of events) at the end of his term on 30 June 2008.
