Arthur Chesterfield-Evans (born 16 June 1950) is an Australian medical practitioner and politician who served as a member of the Legislative Council of

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from 1998 to 2007.

Medical career

Graduated

MB BS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

Sydney, 1975;

FRCS Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional qualification to practise as a senior surgeon in Ireland or the United Kingdom. It is bestowed on an intercollegiate basis by the four Royal Colleges of Surgeons (the Royal ...

(Eng) London, 1980 and MAppSc (OHS)

University of NSW The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...

, 1996. Formerly surgical registrar,

Royal North Shore Hospital The Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) is a major public teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia, located in St Leonards. It serves as a teaching hospital for Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney and has over 600 beds. It is the prin ...

, 1980–81; general practitioner in Sydney 1982 -3; occupational physician,

Sydney Water Sydney Water, formally, Sydney Water Corporation, is a New South Wales Government owned statutory corporation that provides potable drinking water, wastewater and some stormwater services to Greater Metropolitan Sydney, the Illawarra and the B ...

, 1983–1994; postgraduate student (Masters by thesis) 1994; medical officer, Department of Veteran Affairs, 1995; occupational physician, self-employed, at Pacific OHS, Burwood 1995–8. In 1994 he served as NSW President of the

Doctors Reform Society of Australia The Doctors Reform Society of Australia (DRS), established in 1973, is a medico-political thinktank and a medical association of medical practitioners and medical students that has advocated a range of alternative views to those of the Austral ...

, through which he argued for the continuation of Medicare and improvements to the public health system.

Anti-tobacco activism

Chesterfield-Evans was president of the Non-Smokers Movement from 1984 to 1997 and a member of

Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions, or B.U.G.A.U.P. (" bugger up") is an Australian subvertising artistic movement. It practices billboard hijacking using détournement or modification with graffiti of such billboard a ...

(BUGA UP), which vandalised tobacco-advertising billboards with satirical graffiti. He was arrested and convicted over these activities but had his sentence remitted on appeal. He hosted an anti-tobacco radio program, ''Puff Off'', from 1980 to 1994 and in 1988 the Drug and Alcohol Unit of TAFE produced an award-winning film of his activities, ''Confessions of a Simple Surgeon''. He has also served on the Board of NADA (Network of Alcohol and Drug Agencies).

Peace activism

Chesterfield-Evans has been a leading Australian advocate for the establishment of a ministry or

department of peace The Department of Peace is a proposed cabinet-level department of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States. History The peace movement in the United States has a proposed legislative history that dates to the first year ...

in Australia. The argument for the establishment of a ministry or department of peace from Chesterfield-Evans was that such a ministry or department would advocate for the implementation of peace-active policies, both at domestic and international level, and act as a counter to the institutionalised power of violence. Just as we now recognise ministries or departments of environment in the formulation of public policy, so too we need ministries or departments of peace. Chesterfield-Evans spoke as an Australian delegate at the World Peace Forum in Canada in 2006 and also at Social Issues Forums with the Centre for Peace and Social Justice of

Southern Cross University Southern Cross University (SCU) is an Australian public university, with campuses at Lismore and Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales, and at Coolangatta, the most southern suburb of the Gold Coast in Queensland. It is ranked in the top ...

in the same year.

Political career

Chesterfield-Evans joined the

Australian Democrats The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party dissenting splinter groups, it was Austral ...

in 1986 and was appointed to replace Elisabeth Kirkby in the New South Wales Legislative Council on her retirement on 25 June 1998. He was re-elected for an 8-year term in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

and was defeated at the 2007 election, achieving 1.8% of the primary vote, leaving the Democrats unrepresented in the NSW Parliament. As a parliamentarian, he was well known among journalists for his fashion sense, including a liking for yellow shirts. With the eventual diminishment of the Australian Democrats, Chesterfield-Evans defected to the Greens and at the 2015 New South Wales election made an attempt to return to the NSW Parliament this time as the Greens candidate for the Legislative Assembly seat of North Shore but was unsuccessful. He was the Greens candidate for the

2015 North Sydney by-election A by-election for the Australian House of Representatives seat of North Sydney was held on 5 December 2015 from 8 am to 6 pm AEDT. The trigger for the by-election was the 23 October parliamentary resignation of Joe Hockey, the backb ...

which was triggered by the resignation of Joe Hockey, however he lost to Liberal candidate

Trent Zimmerman Trent Moir Zimmerman (born 15 October 1968) is an Australian former politician. He was elected to succeed Joe Hockey as the Liberal Party of Australia member of the House of Representatives seat of North Sydney at the 2015 by-election. Zimmerma ...

Family

He is married to Kate, and they have a son, Mike.

References

External links

Arthur Chesterfield-Evans' personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chesterfield-Evans, Arthur 1950 births Living people Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Australian Democrats politicians Australian Greens candidates Anti-smoking activists Australian anti-war activists Australian politicians convicted of crimes University of New South Wales alumni Australian Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons 21st-century Australian politicians Australian health activists