Max Frederick Willis, (6 December 1935 – 18 August 2021) was an Australian politician and senior

Army Reserve A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve ...

officer. He was a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

member of the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...

from 1970 to 1999. His brother Sir Eric Willis was briefly

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislature. ...

in 1976. Born in

Murwillumbah Murwillumbah ( ) is a town in far north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in the Tweed Shire, on the Tweed River. Sitting on the south eastern foothills of the McPherson Range in the Tweed Volcano valley, Murwillumbah is 848 km north-eas ...

, Willis was the son of Archibald Clarence Willis, a butter factory hand, and Vida Buttenshaw. He was educated at

Murwillumbah High School , motto_translation = I strive, I undertake, I achieve , established = , type = Government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school , principal = Peter Howes , enrolment = 440 , enrolment_as_of = 2018 , teaching_staff = ...

and then received a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

in 1957. Following his admission as a solicitor in 1958, Willis became a partner with Serisier, Willis and Bowring in Miranda until 1971. On 8 August 1970, he married Wendy Patricia Booth, with whom he had four children. Willis had joined the

Citizen Military Forces The Australian Army Reserve is a collective name given to the reserve units of the Australian Army. Since the Federation of Australia in 1901, the reserve military force has been known by many names, including the Citizens Forces, the Citizen ...

in 1953, and was involved in the Army Reserve for thirty years, attaining the rank of

brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

. For his military service, Willis was awarded the

Reserve Force Decoration The Reserve Force Decoration (postnominal RFD) is an Australian Military award given for long service by officers of the Reserve Forces. It is part of the suite of defence force service awards introduced in 1982, which also included the Defence ...

(RFD) and the

Efficiency Decoration The Efficiency Decoration, post-nominal letters TD for recipients serving in the Territorial Army of the United Kingdom or ED for those serving in the Auxiliary Military Forces, was instituted in 1930 for award to part-time officers after twe ...

(ED) by the Australian Government, and the Cross of Solomon Islands (CSI). He was also awarded the

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or go ...

on 1 January 2001, and the National Medal with clasp on 24 October 2001. In 1970, Willis was appointed to the

. He was Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the council from 1977 to 1978 and Leader from 1978 to 1981. In 1991, he was elected President of the council, succeeding

Johno Johnson John Richard "Johno" Johnson GCSG (26 July 1930 – 9 August 2017) was an Australian politician. He served as President of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1978 to 1991. Career Born in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, he was a groc ...

, who had been president since 1978. In 1998, Willis was forced to resign as president and from the house when, under the influence of alcohol, he was unable to control proceedings during voting on a motion to dismiss Supreme Court Justice

Vince Bruce Vince Bruce (born 6 December 1942) is an Australian judge who served on the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 1994 to 1999. Bruce was born in Sydney to Vince and Eileen Bruce. He attended Sydney Technical High School and then Lyons High S ...

. He was replaced by

Virginia Chadwick Virginia Anne Chadwick AO (19 December 194417 September 2009) was a Liberal Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1978 to 1999. She was the first NSW female Minister for Education; the first female President of the New South ...

and retired from politics in 1999. Willis died in August 2021, aged 85.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willis, Max 1935 births 2021 deaths Military personnel from New South Wales Australian brigadiers Australian military personnel of the Vietnam War Australian monarchists Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Deaths from cancer in New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Presidents of the New South Wales Legislative Council Recipients of the Cross of Solomon Islands University of Sydney alumni