Kerin, John Charles (1937 - 2023)

Summary

John Kerin was Australia's longest-serving Minister for Primary Industry and highly-respected in that role. As Minister he promoted policies to reform agriculture in Australia, boost farm productivity, abolish most tariffs for agricultural imports, and establish research and development corporations in which government and primary producers operated in partnership. Many of the reforms he introduced in the areas of fisheries, forestry, irrigation practice, horticulture, and natural resource management are still in place. Kerin had a varied career (including a period as a farmer) before attending university and working at the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. He was a Member of the House of Representatives for 18 years (over two terms) and in the ministry for 11 years. After retiring from Parliament, he was involved in a number of organisations concerned with natural resource management in fisheries, forests, water, land, and animal health, including the Crawford Fund and the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation.

Details

Chronology

? - 2001

Career position - Member of the Board, Billiton Coal Australia P/L

1961 - 1971

Career position - Farmer and businessman

1967

Education - BA, University of New England

1969 - 1971

Career position - Member, Mittagong Shire Council

1971 - 1972

Career position - Economics Research Officer, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE)

1972 - 1975

Career position - Member of the House of Representatives for Macarthur (N.S.W.), Commonwealth of Australia

1973 - 1975

Career position - Member, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment and Conservation, Commonwealth of Australia

1976 - 1978

Career position - Principal Research Economist, Bureau of Agricultural Economics

1977

Education - BEc, Australian National University

1978 - 1993

Career position - Member of the House of Representatives for Werriwa (N.S.W.), Commonwealth of Australia

1980 - 1983

Career position - Opposition Spokesman for Primary Industry, Commonwealth of Australia

1983 - 1987

Career position - Minister for Primary Industry, Commonwealth of Australia

1987 - 1991

Career position - Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, Commonwealth of Australia

1991

Career position - Treasurer, Commonwealth of Australia

December 1991

Career position - Minister for Transport and Communication, Commonwealth of Australia

1992 - 1993

Career position - Minister for Trade and Overseas Development, Commonwealth of Australia

1994

Award - Australian Medal of Agricultural Science, Australian Institute of Agricultural Science

1994 - 1997

Career position - Chairman, Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation

1994 - 2002

Career position - Chairman, Macarthur Council

1995 - 1996

Award - Fellow, Australian Institute of Agricultural Science

1995 - 1997

Career position - Chairman, CRC for Temperate Hardwood Forestry

1995 - 1999

Career position - Chairman, CRC for Weed Management Systems

1995 - 1999

Career position - Chairman, CRC Soil and Land Management

1995 - 2001

Career position - Chairman, Queensland Reef Fisheries Management Advisory Committee

1995 - 2001

Career position - Chairman, CRC for the Sustainable Development of Tropical Savannahs

1996 - 1998

Career position - Chairman, BioLogic International Ltd

1996 - 2004

Career position - Chairman, New South Wales Water Advisory Council

1996 - 2005

Career position - Chairman, CRC for Sensor Signal and Information Processing

1997 - 2005

Career position - Chairman, CRC Sustainable Production Forestry

1997 - 2007

Career position - National Committee Member, UNICEF Australia

1997 - 2023

Award - Fellow, Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (FAIAST)

1999 - 2001

Career position - Chairman, Queensland Trawl Management Advisory Committee

1999 - 2001

Career position - Chairman, Queensland Fisheries Management Authority

2000 - 2003

Career position - Deputy Chancellor, University of Western Sydney

2001

Award - Centenary Medal for service to Australian society in technological science and engineering

2001

Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the Australian Parliament, particularly in the area of government policy and legislative reform relating to primary industry and trade

2001 - 2002

Career position - Member, Whitlam Institute

2001 - 2004

Career position - Chairman, New South Wales State Forests

2001 - 2008

Career position - Chairman, CRC for Tropical Savannah Management

2001 - 2008

Career position - Chairman, CRC for Australian Weed Management

2001 - 2023

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering

2002 - 2004

Career position - Member, Safe Production New South Wales Advisory Committee

2002 - 2004

Career position - Chairman, Marine Stewardship Council

2003 - 2005

Career position - Member of Council, Birds Australia

2003 - 2005

Career position - Chairman, Stored Grains Research Laboratory, CSIRO

2004 - 2006

Career position - Chairman, National Ovine Johne's Disease Program Advisory Committee

2004 - 2007

Career position - President, ACT Branch, Australian Agriculture and Research Economics Society

2004 - 2012

Career position - Board Member, Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority

2008 - 2010

Career position - Board Member, ,CSIRO

2008 - 2012

Career position - Chairman, Interim Committee, Australian Weeds Research Centre

2008 - 2023

Award - Distinguished Life Member, Australian Agriculture and Research Economics Society

2009 - 2011

Career position - Board Member, Ian Clunies Ross Memorial Foundation

2010 - 2012

Career position - Chairman, Weeds Advisory Committee, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation

2010 - 2017

Career position - Chair, National Board of Directors, Crawford Fund

2011 - 2017

Career position - Chairman, CRC for the Australian Poultry Industries

2012 - 2015

Career position - Chairman, Living Landscapes, Bundanoon Trust

2013 - 2014

Career position - Adjunct Professor, Australian National University

2018

Award - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to primary industry through roles in agricultural research administration, to the minerals and natural resources sector, and to science-industry linkages and policy

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Kerin, John C., The way I saw it; the way it was: the making of national agricultural and natural resource management policy (Melbourne: Analysis and Policy Observation, 2017), 713 pp, http://apo.org.au/node/76216. Details

Journal Articles

• Anon, 'The Honourable John Kerin A.M., C.M., FTSE, FAIAST', Australian journal of agricultural and resource economics, 54 (3) (2010), 269-70. Details
• Anon, 'The Honourable John Kerin AO FTSE', Impact: magazine of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, 215 (2023), 63, https://www.atse.org.au/what-we-do/strategic-advice/impact-215/. Details

Resource Sections

• Parliament of Australia, 'Biography for Kerin, the Hon. John Charles, AO', Canberra, 2023, https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22handbook%2Fallmps%2FQH4%22;querytype=;rec=0. Details

Theses

• Inall, Neil J., 'The legacy of John Kerin: a Labor Party man of rural policy based on science PhD,', PhD thesis, Western Sydney University, 2015, http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:38636. Details

See also

• Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia [Queen's Birthday 2018], Governor General's Office, Canberra, 2018, https://www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-02/qb18_media_notes_-_ao.pdf. Details
• Robson, Alexandra K.; Production Manager and Editor eds, Who's who in Australia 2019 (Southbank, Vic.: AAP Directories, 2018), 1788 pp. Details