Andrew Whitecross (born 25 May 1963) was an Australian

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and a member of the

Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory (known in short as the ACT Legislative Assembly) is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It sits in the Legislative Assembly Building on Civic Sq ...

from 1995-1998, elected to the multi-member electorate of Brindabella for the Labor Party. Whitecross was elected the third ACT Legislative Assembly at the 1995 general election as a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

member. He succeeded former

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Rosemary Follett Rosemary Follett (born 27 March 1948) is a former Australian politician who was the inaugural Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, serving in 1989 and again between 1991 and 1995. She was the first woman to become head of gove ...

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

in March 1996, and continued in that position until his replacement by

Wayne Berry Wayne Bruce Berry (born 14 November 1942), former Australian politician, was a member of the unicameral Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly from 1989 to 2008, representing the electorate of Ginninderra (from 1995–2008) for the ...

in August 1997. He recontested the seat at the 1998 general election, but was unsuccessful. Whitecross and his successor Berry are the only ALP leaders who did not become Chief Ministers and Whitecross is the only ALP leader who did not lead the party into an election. With a caucus of six members Whitecross was able to replace Follett as leader when he and two caucus colleagues tapped Follett on the shoulder which convinced her to stand down as leader.

References

Australian Labor Party members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly Members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly 1963 births Living people Leaders of the Opposition in the Australian Capital Territory {{Australia-Labor-politician-stub