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Speaker, 4 May 1993 to 29 January 1996
Australian Labor Party
Stephen Martin (b.1948), economist, rugby league referee, and 21st Speaker of the House of Representatives, presided over the House during a period of fierce encounters between a dominant Prime Minister and a reinvigorated Opposition.1
Martin was born in Wollongong, NSW, one of three children of a New Zealand-born accountant and his wife. He studied at the Australian National University and the University of NSW and was a high school teacher from 1970 to 1973. After further study he lectured in economics at the University of Wollongong and worked for the NSW Department of Environment and Planning.
Inspired to join the Labor Party by Gough Whitlam, Martin held various party positions in the Illawarra region. In 1983 he became an alderman on the Wollongong City Council and at the 1984 federal election he won the seat of Macarthur, which then encompassed the northern suburbs of Wollongong and some semi-rural areas extending westward.
As a back bencher, Martin gained prominence by chairing the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration and particularly its 1991 inquiry into the consequences of the deregulation of the banking industry. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1991 to 1993.
The 1992 electoral redistribution moved northern Wollongong from Macarthur to the adjoining seat of Cunningham. Martin successfully challenged the sitting member for Labor Party preselection in Cunningham, winning the seat at the 1993 election and holding it comfortably until his retirement.
After the 1993 election Martin was elected Speaker. It was suggested during the nomination process that his experience as a rugby league referee for 16 years and as a high school teacher was sound preparation for the Speakership.2 The Chamber over which he presided was dominated by Prime Minister Paul Keating. Keating did not accept that a Speaker should be wholly independent, later conceding that he sometimes made it difficult for Martin. There were accusations of bias from the Opposition and some acrimonious exchanges in the House.
After Labor’s defeat at the 1996 election Martin held a series of senior shadow ministerial positions, including defence and trade. He resigned from Parliament in August 2002, citing ‘political burnout’. He has since had various academic and business roles, including a professorship at the University of Wollongong, CEO of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, and Chair of the Bank of China (Australia). He has also been involved in a number of community organisations. He has three daughters and a son.
Wesley Barton Walters
Victorian portraitist and abstract painter Wesley Walters (1928-2014) studied architecture at the Gordon Institute in Geelong and art at the Ballarat School of Mines before embarking on a career as an illustrator in Melbourne. He studied life-drawing at night at the Victorian Artists’ Society and taught himself anatomy. By the 1950s and 1960s he was freelancing as a commercial artist and had achieved success with commendations and awards for his advertising work that led to his induction into the Illustrators’ Hall of Fame some 30 years later. Walters developed a love for non-figurative abstract painting, creating layered, expressionist works emphasising texture and a sense of movement. In the 1970s Walters focused on portraiture, undertaking hundreds of commissions of public figures across business, academia and the arts, including his Archibald Prize-winning portrait of broadcaster Phillip Adams in 1979 and his portrait of art collector and philanthropist, Dr Joseph Brown. He was a finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 1988 and 1992, and won that prize in 1998. His work is represented in major state and national collections across Australia.3
Stephen Paul Martin
by Wesley Barton Walters
1995
Oil on canvas
120 x 89.5 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. Information in this biography has been taken from the following unless otherwise sourced: J Hawkins, ‘Martin, Stephen Paul (1948–)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2021, accessed 30 August 2021; K O’Brien, Keating, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2015.
2. R Elliott, M Crawford, ‘Speaker: Election’, House of Representatives, Debates, 4 May 1993, pp. 4–6.
3. ‘Wes Walters: 1928–2014’, National Portrait Gallery; H Ryan, ‘A collection of works by Wes Walters’, Leonard Joel Auctioneers; D Thomas and Clare Gervasoni, ‘Wes Walters (1928–2014)’, Federation University; ‘Walters, Wes’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds, The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 1001. Websites accessed 15 April 2021.