Terence William "Terry" Sheahan, AO (born 18 August 1947) is an Australian judge and former politician. He was 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 labour ...

member for Burrinjuck in the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

from 1973 to 1988, and held various ministerial portfolios (including

Attorney General of New South Wales The Attorney General of New South Wales, in formal contexts also Attorney-General or Attorney General for New South Wales and usually known simply as the Attorney General, is a minister in the Government of New South Wales who has responsibil ...

) between 1980 and 1988. On 9 April 1997 he was appointed to a judge on the New South Wales Land and Environment Court, and in 2019 retired from this role. He is the current patron of ADRA - Australian Dispute Resolution Association, a professional mediation association and accreditation body. Terry Sheahan was the only son of Bill Sheahan, who was also a member of the Legislative Assembly (1941–73). He attended school in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

before studying at 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 ...

, receiving a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

and a

Bachelor of Law 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 ...

in 1969. He worked as a solicitor from 1967 and was called to the bar in 1982. He had joined the Willoughby branch of the Labor Party in January 1964 and went on to be a member of the

Yass Yass may refer to: People * Catherine Yass (born 1963), painter * Yazz, a British pop singer from the 1980s and 1990s * Jeff Yass (born 1956), options trader, managing director and one of the five founders of the Philadelphia-based Susquehanna I ...

Cootamundra Cootamundra, nicknamed Coota, is a town in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia and within the Riverina. It is within the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council. At the 2016 Census, Cootamundra had a population of 6,782. ...

and

Gladesville Gladesville is a suburb in the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Gladesville is located 10 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Ryde a ...

branches. On 26 May 1973, he married Mary Christine Ridley, with whom he had eight children. In 1973, Bill Sheahan retired and Terry was elected to his seat of Burrinjuck. He was secretary of the Parliamentary Labor Party from 1976 until his elevation to the ministry in 1980 as Housing and Cooperative Services Minister. In 1983 he became Energy and Finance Minister, moving to Planning and Environment in 1984. Later in 1984 he became Attorney General, a post he held until 1987, when he became Transport Minister. Sheahan was defeated in Burrinjuck by

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 ...

candidate

Alby Schultz Albert John "Alby" Schultz (29 May 193914 July 2015) was an Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from October 1998 to August 2013, representing the Division of Hume in New South Wales. Biogra ...

when Labor lost office in 1988. In 1989, Sheahan became President of the New South Wales Labor Party, serving until 1997, when he resigned to accept an appointment as a Judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales, a post he continues to hold. He divorced his wife Mary in 2003, and on 19 August 2007 married Dr Jennifer Lynette Hardy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheahan, Terry 1947 births Living people Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Officers of the Order of Australia Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Attorneys General of New South Wales