Robert Tickner
{{Short description|Australian politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = The Honourable
| name = Robert Tickner
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|AO}}
| image =
|office = Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs
| primeminister = Bob Hawke
Paul Keating
|predecessor = Gerry Hand
|successor = John Herron
|term_start = 4 April 1990
|term_end = 11 March 1996
| constituency_MP1 = Hughes
| parliament1 = Australian
| predecessor1 = Les Johnson
| successor1 = Danna Vale
| term_start1 = 18 February 1984
| term_end1 = 2 March 1996
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1951|12|24}}
| birth_place = Sydney, New South Wales
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality =
| spouse =
| party = Australian Labor Party
| relations =
| children =
| residence =
| alma_mater =
| occupation = Lecturer, solicitor
| profession =
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Robert Edward Tickner {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AO}} (born 24 December 1951) is a former Australian Labor Party cabinet minister. He was CEO of the Australian Red Cross from 2005 to 2015.
Early life and education
Born in Sydney in 1951, Robert Tickner was adopted. He later searched for his birth mother after the birth of his own son.
After attending secondary school in Forster and Taree on the North Coast of New South Wales, he studied at the University of Sydney, graduating in law and economics.{{cite web |title=About Robert |website=Robert Tickner |url=https://www.roberttickner.com/about |access-date=23 September 2024}}
Early career
Prior to entering parliament, Tickner worked as a university lecturer at the NSW Institute of Technology from 1974 to 1979, then as principal solicitor for the NSW Aboriginal Legal Service from 1979 to 1984.
Tickner was one of the early and influential members of Friends of the Earth Australia in Sydney in 1975, being the lease owner of a three-storey terrace on Crown St, Surry Hills, which became the FoE Sydney bookshop and office. He was convenor of the FoE urban campaign which opposed the Sydney City Council's inappropriate high rise development.Cam Walker (ed) 2004, pp 17 [http://www.foe.org.au/sites/default/files/30Years-book-FoE-Australia%209MB.pdf Thirty Years of Creative Resistance]. Retrieved 6 April 2015
Political career
From 1977 to 1984 he was elected as a Labor councillor on the Sydney City Council,{{cite web |title = Biography for Tickner, the Hon. Robert Edward |publisher = Parliament of Australia
|work = ParlInfo Web |url = http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/view_document.aspx?id=8055&table=BIOGS |access-date = 6 January 2008 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070915115532/http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/view_document.aspx?TABLE=biogs&ID=8055
|archive-date = 15 September 2007 |df = dmy-all}}
He also served a brief time as acting lord mayor of Sydney in August to September 1983, in the absence of Lord Mayor Doug Sutherland and Deputy Lord Mayor Tony Bradford.{{cite news |last1=Coultan |first1=Mark |title=Alderman makes it to the top at last - but only for 10 days |agency=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=29 August 1983 |page=2}}Cam Walker (ed) 2004, pp 20 [http://www.foe.org.au/sites/default/files/30Years-book-FoE-Australia%209MB.pdf Thirty Years of Creative Resistance]. Retrieved 6 April 2015City of Sydney, [http://www.sydneyaldermen.com.au/alderman/robert-tickner/ Robert Tickner], Sydney Aldermen website, Retrieved 6 April 2015
After failing to gain victory as ALP candidate for the 1981 Wentworth by-election (which was won by the Liberals' candidate Peter Coleman, former Leader of the NSW Opposition), Tickner was successful in entering the federal parliament at the 1984 Hughes by-election. Bob Hawke appointed Tickner, in 1990, the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs; and he retained this post throughout Paul Keating's government.{{Citation|author1=Tickner, R. E. (Robert E.)|title=Ten doors down : the story of an extraordinary adoption reunion|year=2020 |publication-date=2020|publisher=Scribe Publications|isbn=978-1-925849-45-5}}
Tickner's tenure in office was marred by the Hindmarsh Island bridge controversy. Partly due to this affair, and partly due to the increasing unpopularity of the Keating government as a whole, Tickner was resoundingly defeated in the 1996 election by Liberal challenger Danna Vale, suffering an 11-point swing against him. He was one of eight ministers in the Keating government to lose their seats.{{cn|date=September 2024}}
Other activities
Tickner served as chief executive of the Australian Red Cross from February 2005 to July 2015.[http://www.redcross.org.au/announce-ceo-leaving.aspx Red Cross]. Retrieved 9 September 2016{{cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/20/2496784.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221164928/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/20/2496784.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 February 2009|title=Red Cross abandons annual appeal|last=Rubinsztein-Dunlop|first=Sean|work=ABC Online|date=20 February 2009|access-date=20 February 2009}}{{Citation|last1=Oppenheimer|first1=Melanie|author-link1=Melanie Oppenheimer|title=The power of humanity: 100 years of Australian Red Cross 1914-2014|year=2014|publication-date=2014|publisher=HarperCollins Australia|isbn=978-0-7322-9485-4}}
{{as of|2024}} Tickner is co-chair of the EveryAGE Counts Steering Committee, and ambassador for International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Australia.{{Cite web|title=Campaigns|url=https://www.roberttickner.com/campaign|access-date=2020-11-01|website=Robert Tickner|language=en-US}}
=Justice Reform Initiative=
Tickner is the founding chair of the Justice Reform Initiative,{{Cite web|title=Robert Tickner|url=https://www.roberttickner.com/|access-date=2020-11-01|website=Robert Tickner|language=en-US}} which campaigns against what it sees as the over-use of prisons in Australia. It is supported by the Paul Ramsay Foundation and has cross-party support,{{cite web |title=About |website=Justice Reform Initiative |date=1 August 2018 |url=https://www.justicereforminitiative.org.au/about |access-date=23 September 2024}} as well as many experienced and distinguished patrons. Its Co-Patrons in Chief are former governor generals of Australia Sir William Deane and Dame Quentin Bryce, and patrons include former High Court justice Virginia Bell; former NSW senator Peter Baume; Tim Costello; Olympian and Australian of the Year Robert de Castella; former Liberal MP and ultra-marathon athlete Pat Farmer; author Kate Grenville ; Jackie Huggins; former High Court justice Michael Kirby; playwright Suzie Miller; artist Ben Quilty; Aboriginal elder and activist Pat Turner; former Liberal Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt; and many others.{{cite web |title=Our Patrons |website=Justice Reform Initiative |date=1 August 2018 |url=https://www.justicereforminitiative.org.au/ourpatrons |access-date=23 September 2024}}
Selected publications
- Tickner, Robert E. Taking a stand : land rights to reconciliation (2001) Allen & Unwin, N.S.W. {{ISBN|1865080519}} {{cite book|url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/831995|title=Taking a stand : land rights to reconciliation / Robert Tickner|publisher=National Library of Australia|isbn=9781865080512 |access-date=12 March 2015}}
- Tickner, Robert. Ten Doors Down: The Story of an Extraordinary Adoption Reunion (2020) Scribe Publications, {{ISBN|9781925849455|}}
References
{{Reflist}}
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{{succession box|title=Member for Hughes || before=Les Johnson || after=Danna Vale | years=1984 –1996}}
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{{First Keating Ministry}}
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Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia
Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Hughes
Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives
Category:Officers of the Order of Australia
Category:University of Sydney alumni
Category:Australian MPs 1983–1984
Category:Australian MPs 1984–1987
Category:Australian MPs 1987–1990