Barry Thomas Cunningham (26 October 1939 – 12 September 2018) was an Australian politician. Born in Pakenham, Victoria, he was a dairy and potato farmer and an agricultural contractor before entering politics. In 1980, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Labor member for McMillan, defeating Barry Simon of the Liberal Party, who had been deprived of Democratic Labor Party preferences due to his views on abortion. He was defeated in 1990 but was re-elected in 1993, before being defeated again in 1996. In 2015, Cunningham and three other former MPs brought a case before the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution. The High Court was established fol ...

, purporting that reductions to their retirement allowances and limitations on the number of "domestic return trips per year" under the Members of Parliament (Life Gold Pass) Act 2002 was unconstitutional under S51(xxxi) of the

Constitution of Australia The Constitution of Australia (or Australian Constitution) is a written constitution, constitutional document that is Constitution, supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a Federation of Australia, federation under a constitutio ...

. They lost the case in 2016, with the court finding that Parliament was entitled to vary the terms of allowances. He died in 2018.

References

1939 births 2018 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for McMillan Members of the Australian House of Representatives 20th-century Australian politicians People from Victoria (state) {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub