Bruce Laurence Webster (13 August 1927 – 25 July 2019) was an Australian broadcaster and politician. He worked for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) from 1947, joining as a messenger boy, then becoming an announcer and newsreader. He was the member for

Pittwater Pittwater is a semi-mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, located about north of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the Ce ...

, in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 8 February 1975 until 21 July 1978.

Media career

Bruce Webster worked in various roles in radio and television news, presentation and reporting at the ABC until the 1960s. Bruce joined Qantas in 1966 as PR Manager in San Francisco before moving back to Sydney in 1969 to join commercial media, co-hosting ''The Today Show'' on Channel 7 with

Patricia Lovell Patricia Anna Lovell (née Parr), (1929 – 26 January 2013), commonly referred to as Pat Lovell, was an Australian film producer and actress, whose work within that country's film industry led her to receive the Raymond Longford Award in 2 ...

State politics

In the mid 1970s, Webster left the media to run for New South Wales state politics as a member of the Liberal Party. He succeeded Robert Askin in the seat of

in the 1975 election and was the party's spokesman on Mines and Energy.

Return to media

Disillusioned with politics he left the parliament after about 4 years and joined Radio station 2UE as News Director before rejoining the ABC, moving to Canberra to present news and sport on 2CN 666 and to host the live radio broadcasts of Parliament on what is now ABC News Radio.

Honours

Honours bestowed on Webster in his career included: the Order of Australia (OAM) Medal, the Queen's Jubilee Medal and the Centenary Medal.

Personal life

Webster was the son of Sidney and Helena Webster. In 1952 he married his wife Pat, and they had three children. He died, aged 91, in Gosford, New South Wales on 25 July 2019.

References

1927 births 2019 deaths Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia ABC News (Australia) presenters People educated at Wesley College (Victoria) People from Brighton, Victoria Qantas people Australian expatriates in the United States Television personalities from Melbourne Radio personalities from Melbourne Politicians from Sydney Recipients of the Centenary Medal {{Australia-Liberal-politician-stub