Laurence John Brereton (born 29 May 1946) is an Australian former politician who was a state minister, a federal member of cabinet, and kingmaker in the election of several Australian Labor Party leaders, including Paul Keating and Mark Latham. He was a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1990 to October 2004, representing the Division of Kingsford Smith, New South Wales. He is credited with building Sydney's controversial monorail.
Early life
Brereton was born in the Sydney suburb of Kensington, and educated at De La Salle Catholic College, Coogee, now defunct. He was apprenticed and worked as an electrical tradesman to the Sydney County Council, a former council-owned retailer of electricity in inner Sydney.
Political career
New South Wales politics
Brereton served in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as member for Randwick 1970–71 and Heffron 1973–90. He survived the political controversy of the Botany Council affair in the mid-'70s when he was accused of attempting to influence ALP aldermen who were considering an application to rezone a block of land. He and Geoffrey Cahill, then Labor's NSW general secretary (and grandson of former Premier Joseph Cahill), appeared in court on bribery and conspiracy charges but after 17 days of hearings and evidence from high-powered witnesses, including Rupert Murdoch, all charges were thrown out.
In the governments led by Neville Wran and (from 1986) Barrie Unsworth, Brereton was Minister for Health 1981–84, Minister for Roads 1983–84 and 1984–87, Minister for Public Works 1984–87 and Minister for Employment 1984.
Brereton was a member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry 1996–2001 serving as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. Brereton's activism on the East Timor issue was strongly opposed by senior Labor political figures, notably Whitlam and former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans and found little support from Federal Labor leader Kim Beazley. However Beazley was reluctant to challenge Brereton's handling of the issue and eventually accepted the change in Labor policy. Following controversy in 1999, over leaked Australian intelligence reports relating to East Timor and the Indonesian military, Australian Federal Police and Defence Security agents raided Dr Dorling's home in September 2000, but no classified material was found.
Taking into account his service in the New South Wales Parliament, Brereton had the longest period of parliamentary service of any member of the Parliament elected in 2001. In June 2004 he announced his retirement from politics at the 2004 federal election. He helped engineer the candidacy of the rock singer Peter Garrett as his successor in the seat.
Personal life
His wife, Justice Dr Tricia Kavanagh, was a Judge on the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales and is the President of New South Wales Labor Party. They have two sons. Brereton is the younger brother of Deirdre Grusovin.