Barry Jones

The Hon
The University of Melbourne

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Profile

Barry Jones was a teacher, lawyer, historian, political scientist with a passion for science and the arts who became a Labor MP in the Victorian Parliament (1972-77) and Commonwealth Parliament (1977-98). He worked to abolish the death penalty in Australia. Minister for Science 1983-90, he was the first Australian politician to argue that climate change was an existential threat to civilization, and to campaign about the genetic revolution, the information revolution, post-industrialism, a post-carbon economy and the preservation of Antarctica. Author of 14 books, he represented Australia at UNESCO in Paris 1991-97, was a Visiting Fellow Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge 2000-01, and is a Fellow of four Australian learned Academies and a Professorial Fellow at Melbourne University.