Louis Stuart Lieberman (born 13 May 1938) is an Australian politician and was a member of both the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presidin ...

and the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members o ...

. Born on 13 May 1938 at

Swan Hill Swan Hill is a city in the northwest of Victoria, Australia on the Murray Valley Highway and on the south bank of the Murray River, downstream from the junction of the Loddon River. At , Swan Hill had a population of 11,508. Indigenous Peo ...

, Lou Lieberman was educated at

Albury High School , motto_translation = To the stars through difficult and challenging ways , location = Kiewa Street, Albury, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , established = , type = Gover ...

. He studied law while working as a law clerk at Tietyens Angel & Jackling and on becoming a barrister in 1961 became a partner. He bought the Wodonga practice and merged it with J. S. N. Harris in 1966. In 1978 he became a founding partner in the Wodonga law firm of Lieberman Harris Boyd. He also did National Service and served in 8/13 VMR (Victorian Mounted Rifles) working with Centurion tanks. He served on the local consultative council for the development of the Albury-Wodonga growth centre planned by the Whitlam Government in 1973.

Political career

In 1976, he stood for the Liberal Party for the seat of Benambra in the

. Although it had been held by the National Party since 1932, he defeated the National Party candidate, Bill Baxter. Relations between the Liberals and Nationals have historically been strained in Victoria; at the time, the two parties' Victorian branches fought elections separately. Lieberman served as Assistant Minister of Health from 1979–1981, Minister for Planning from 1979–1982, Minister of Minerals and Energy and Minister of Mines in 1981, and Minister of Local Government 1981–1982. He was a member of the Victorian Parliament until 1992. During his term in the Victorian Parliament, he was an alternate delegate to the Australia Constitutional Convention in 1977, 1979 and 1983. He stood for the seat of

Indi Indi may refer to: *Mag-indi language *Division of Indi, an electoral division in the Australian House of Representatives *Indi, Karnataka, a town in the state of Karnataka, India *Instrument Neutral Distributed Interface, a distributed control sys ...

for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

at the 1993 Federal Election. He retained the seat, succeeding Ewen Cameron. During his three terms in parliament he served on several committees; he chaired the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and the Joint Committee on Publications. Despite his previous experience as a minister and opposition backbencher at the state level, he was never promoted to the ministry under

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...

. He was in New York on

11 September 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

attending a

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conference. He was staying in a flat 3 km north of the

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when the first plane hit. After he decided not to stand for the seat of Indi, the Liberal Party preselected

Melburnian This is a list of people from Melbourne with some call to fame. A Melburnian is an inhabitant of Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria, Australia. The word is a demonym. Native Melburnians The following were born or grew up in Melbourne. ...

Sophie Panopoulos as their candidate for the 2001 Federal Election.

Retirement and Honours

In 1999, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Hume Building Society, a local building society in the Albury Wodonga area. He became involved in raising money to upgrade facilities at Albury's Mercy Health Service where he headed the building gift-giving program committee. He has also served on the Council of

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria a ...

. In 2016 Lieberman was appointed a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Order (distinction), honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of Australia, Queen of Aus ...

for significant service to the Parliaments of Australia and Victoria through a range of portfolio responsibilities, and to the community of Albury/Wodonga.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lieberman, Lou 1938 births Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Indi Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Victoria Living people Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly People from Swan Hill Members of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Centenary Medal 21st-century Australian politicians 20th-century Australian politicians