Reg Wright

Sir Reginald Charles "Reg" Wright (10 July 1905 – 10 March 1990) was an Australian politician, a Liberal Party Senator for Tasmania from 1950 to 1978.

Wright was born in Central Castra, Tasmania and educated at Devonport High School and the University of Tasmania, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the Bar in 1928 and lectured in law at the University of Tasmania. In 1941, he enlisted in the second Australian Imperial Force and was promoted to captain in 1943.^[1][2]

Political career

Wright was elected as a Liberal member for the Tasmanian House of Assembly seat of Franklin in November 1946 and was the first State president of the Liberal Party in Tasmania. In November 1949, he resigned to enter federal politics. He was elected to the Senate at the 1949 election, taking his seat in July 1950. He was appointed to the ministry in February 1968 in the John Gorton government as Minister for Works and Minister in charge of Tourist Activities. He held these positions in the McMahon government, which was defeated at the 1972 election.^[1][3]

Wright holds the record in the Australian Parliament for "crossing the floor" to vote against his own party, which he did 150 times.^[4][5] He did not contest the 1977 election. He was knighted on 3 June 1978, for his services to the Tasmanian Parliament.^[6] He left the Liberal Party in June 1978 and sat as an independent until his retirement on 30 June.^[7]

An accomplished barrister and orator, Wright returned to practising law on retiring from the Senate in 1978. In retirement he returned to a farm near the farmhouse in Castra where he had been born and died there; he was accorded a State Funeral in Ulverstone, Tasmania.^[2]

His younger brother, Emeritus Professor Sir Roy Wright, AK, was Chancellor of the University of Melbourne 1980–89.^[2] He predeceased Reg by only ten days. His older brother, John Forsyth Wright was a Member of the House of Assembly in the Parliament of Tasmania.^[8] Two of Sir Reginald's sons achieved distinction in the law in Tasmania, one as a Supreme Court judge and the other as a magistrate.

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