Rodney Cavalier

Rodney Cavalier is a former NSW Minister for Education and the current Chairman of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust.
He joined Labor Party in 1968 at age 20 and worked as a union organiser and as an aide to Federal Minister Clyde Cameron before being elected as an alderman on Hunters Hill Council (1977-1980) and later winning the State seat of Fuller from sitting member Peter Coleman in 1978.
Rodney was Minister for Education from 1984-88 in the Wran and Unsworth governments. He was noted for his abrasive personality, reformist zeal and intolerance of sloppy work. One left-wing Teachers Federation official described him as “the rudest, most pugnacious individual to hold office”.
Rodney lost his seat in 1988, and was appointed chairman of the Australian Language and Literacy Council and later became deputy chairman of the National Council for the Centenary of Federation.
Rodney is an ardent book collector and lover of cricket, and in 2001 was appointed Chairman of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of University of Technology Sydney in 2008 and is a Fellow of the Senate of the University of Sydney.

Execution: How NSW Labor knocked off a Premier

08 Oct 10 Editor’s note: This is an extract from Rodney Cavalier’s forthcoming book Power Crisis, an explosive account of the self-destruction of…... Read more

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