Ted Mack (politician)
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Ted Mack (1933-) is an Australian politician often referred to as the "father of the independents" in Australia. As the only person to have been elected and re-elected as an independent to local, state and federal government, he holds a unique place in Australian political history.
Possessing a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of New South Wales, Mack expected to design hospitals and live out the suburban dream in the comfortable environs of North Sydney.
The activities of the North Sydney city council of 1970, when it announced its intention to construct a 17-storey office block against his back fence, convinced him that governments had little regard for public interest and sparked a determination to return government to the people.
Mack was elected to the North Sydney City Council in 1974, where he served until 1988. Upon his election to the office of Mayor (a position he held from 1980 to 1988), he sold the mayoral Mercedes and bought community buses with the proceeds. He also instituted a series of reforms which made North Sydney the most open council in Australia. He served as the member for North Shore from 1981 to 1988 in the New South Wales state parliament, but achieved wider fame following his election to Federal Parliament as the member for North Sydney in 1990.
During his time in federal politics, Mack opposed the unilateral removal of tariffs, privatisation, Australian involvement in Gulf War I and in the 1994 conflict in Bougainville.
He retired from his state and federal MP terms just before he was due to qualify for his parliamentary pension entitlements, as a statement against the excesses of public political office.
Despite living nearby, he refuses to travel across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in protest at the expensive tolls imposed on it.
Mack was elected as an independent Republican delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention. He opposed the model favoured by the Australian Republican Movement. Along with Clem Jones, he is a director of Real Republic, and is known to be a strong proponent of Citizen Initiated Referenda.