Kevin Michael Byrne (born 1949) was Mayor of the City of Cairns in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, from 1992 to 1995, and then from 2000 to 2008.

Early life

He was born in

Lae Lae () is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River and at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is the main land transport corridor between the Highl ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

1949. His family had first arrived in Papua New Guinea in 1906 when his grandfather was appointed Chief Collector of Customs in Port Moresby. His primary education was on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea and he attended

Nudgee College , motto_translation = A Sign of Faith , location = Boondall, Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , other_name = St. Joseph's Nudgee College , former_name ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

from 1963 until 1967.

Military career

Byrne graduated in 1969 from

Officer Cadet School An officer candidate school (OCS) is a military school which trains civilians and enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a commission as officers in the armed forces of a country. How OCS is run differs between countries and services. Typ ...

Portsea, Victoria Portsea is a seaside town on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, approximately south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local government area. Portsea recorded ...

(

OCS Portsea The Officer Cadet School, Portsea (sometimes referred to as OCS Portsea) was an officer training establishment of the Australian Army. Established at Portsea in Victoria, Australia, in 1951 to provide training to officer cadets prior to commissio ...

) with an

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

commission. He was awarded the Sword of Honour for Leadership in that year. His 17-year military career included Australian and overseas postings to

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

and

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

. His final military assignment was as a Senior Instructor at the

Royal Military College, Duntroon lit: Learning promotes strength , established = , type = Military college , chancellor = , head_label = Commandant , head = Brigadier Ana Duncan , principal = , city = Campbell , state ...

, 1987.

Working life

Byrne served as the regional manager in the Office of Northern and Regional Development, Cairns, between 1987 and 1990. In 1990 he became the regional manager of the Queensland Confederation of Industry. Byrne was elected

Mayor of Cairns This is a list of mayors of the Far North Queensland city of Cairns. Cairns was originally established as a Borough with a Chairman from 1885 until 1903, when the ''Local Authorities Act 1902'' transformed it into a Town with a Mayor. The Town a ...

1992; and re-elected 1994. In 1995, he was defeated by Tom Pyne. He served as the Administrative Director for an oil spill cleanup operation, funded by the World Bank and European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, in the Kolva Basin, in the Komi Republic, part of the Russian Federation. The Pechora River tributaries were remediated and of oil were recovered. In December 1995, Byrne was appointed as the Chief Executive of the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority. He was a member of the national negotiating team for bilateral air service agreements; the acting chairman of the National Airline Commission for two years; deputy chairman of

Air Niugini Air Niugini Limited is the national airline of Papua New Guinea, based in Air Niugini House on the property of Jacksons International Airport, Port Moresby. It operates a domestic network from Port Moresby to 12 major airports while its subsidi ...

for eighteen months; and a national delegate to the APEC Working Groups on Tourism and Trade. In December 1999, Byrne returned to Cairns; and was re-elected as Mayor of Cairns on 25 March 2000 and again in March 2004. In 2008 he was defeated by

Val Schier Valerie Jean Schier was the mayor of the Cairns Regional Council, Queensland, Australia from March 2008 until May 2012. Schier was born on 22 April 1950 and grew up in Falmouth, a small village on the north east coast of Tasmania. She moved to ...

for the position of mayor of the

Cairns Regional Council The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. H ...

Controversy

Byrne was the subject of media attention and controversy for involvement with property developers, attitudes towards racial issues, and his approach to government and the electorate. Some examples of the unproven allegations include: ;Allegations of racism An aborted attempt by the Byrne Council to secretly bus indigenous people from the Cairns region to the remote Lockhart River region. ;Contravened electoral policies Allegations (and subsequent referral to the Crime and Misconduct Commission) by a local ratepayers group that he contravened electoral and ethical policies by maintaining an undeclared involvement in other primary businesses during his mayoralty. ;Close ties with developers A self-acknowledged perception that he was 'in the developers pockets', ultimately attributed by him as the reason for his defeat in 2008. Three months later he accepted employment as a senior director with a Cairns property developer. Tragically, the managing director of the company was later murdered and the company went into receivership. ;Ethical misconduct by his wife An investigation of Lady Mayoress Amanda Byrne for ethical misconduct under the terms of the Property Agents and Motor Dealers Act 2000 (PAMD Act). She was ultimately found guilty of charges by the office of fair trading and, in a move unprecedented in Queensland, she was banned for life from practising as an accommodation manager. ;Ignoring disaster risk advice That advice from government environmental body

Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...

that warned of a serious disaster risk in approving new development on the Cairns slopes and some low-lying areas was set-aside in favour of more favourable reports from the Council's own engineers.

Higher education

Byrne claims formal qualifications from

Kensington University Kensington University was an unaccredited distance education institution that was based at different times in California and Hawaii. Kensington University was eventually shut down by state authorities in both states. History The school was found ...

. Located in Glendale, California, Kensington was an

unaccredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

distance education provider that was shut down by state authorities there after the state Council for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education found that "little or no rigor or credible academic standards are necessary in order to be awarded an advanced degree at Kensington University." The attributed qualification is a Master of Arts (Business Administration and Management) with GPA 4, granted in 1993 by Kensington University.

Awards

In 2000 Byrne was awarded the Papua New Guinea Independence Medal (25th Anniversary) for services to Aviation and Tourism; and the Australian Centenary Medal for services to Local Government, in 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrne, Kevin Mayors of Cairns Living people 1949 births Graduates of the Officer Cadet School, Portsea