Dr Ian Alexander
Member of the Legislative Assembly
of Western Australia
In office
9 May 1987 – 6 February 1993
Preceded byTerry Burke
Succeeded byDiana Warnock
ConstituencyPerth
Personal details
Born (1947-04-14) 14 April 1947
Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Political partyLabor (1972–1991)
Greens (from 1995)
Other political
affiliations		Independent (1991–1995)
Alma materUniversity of Western Australia (B.A., M.A.)
University of London (M.Phil.)
Australian National University (Ph.D.)

Ian Christopher Alexander (born 14 April 1947) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1987 to 1993, representing the seat of Perth. He was elected as a representative of the Labor Party, but in 1991 left the party to sit as an independent.

Early life

Alexander was born in Leeds, England, to Elsie Louise (née Chatterley) and Solomon Schechter Alexander.[1] His father was a grandson of Solomon Schechter, a Romanian Jew who later became a Jewish community leader in the United States.[2] Alexander and his family arrived in Western Australia in April 1951, where he attended Guildford Grammar School. He went on to the University of Western Australia, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in geography in 1968 and a Master of Arts in 1970. Alexander subsequently completed a Master of Philosophy in town planning in 1972, at the University of London, and then a doctorate in urban research in 1981, at the Australian National University. Prior to entering politics, he worked as a lecturer at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT).[1]

Politics

Alexander served on the Perth City Council from 1982 to 1985.[1] He had joined the Labor Party in 1972, and was elected to state parliament at the 1987 Perth by-election, caused by the resignation of Terry Burke. Alexander retained his seat at the 1989 state election, albeit with a significantly reduced margin.[3] However, in March 1991 he resigned from the Labor Party to sit as an independent, citing "frequent breaches of the party's basic principles and platforms".[4] Alexander did not contest his seat at the 1993 election, and after leaving parliament returned to work as a university lecturer at the University of Western Australia. He joined the Greens Western Australia in 1995, and at the 2001 state election unsuccessfully stood as the Greens candidate for the seat of Fremantle.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ian Christopher Alexander – Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  2. ↑ Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit Archived 22 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  3. ↑ Black, David; Prescott, Valerie (1997). Election statistics : Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890–1996. Perth, [W.A.]: Western Australian Parliamentary History Project and Western Australian Electoral Commission. ISBN 0730984095.
  4. ↑ Humphries, David (6 March 1991). "WA's Labor sinks towards minority government". The Age. p. 6.
    "Labor in trouble in the West". The Sydney Morning Herald. 6 March 1991. p. 14.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.