William Ian Thomas (born 18 September 1950) is a former Australian politician. He was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

and was a union official and ministerial officer before entering politics. In 1986 he was elected to the

Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House, Perth, Parliament House in the Western Australian capi ...

as the

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 for

Welshpool Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...

, moving to Cockburn in 1989. From 1986 to 1989 he was Deputy Government Whip, and from 1989 to 1992 he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet. Following Labor's defeat in 1993 he was promoted to the front bench as Shadow Minister for Water Resources, Science and Technology and Energy, but he stepped down from the front bench in 1999 and retired from politics in 2001.

References

1950 births Living people Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia 21st-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-WesternAustralia-MP-stub