About Peter Kavanagh MLC

Peter Kavanagh has been a Member of the Legislative Council upper house in the State Parliament of Victoria representing Western Victoria region since the 2006 election.

Peter is the first politician to be elected from the Democratic Labor Party in Australia for about 30 years.

Peter Kavanagh was born in Melbourne in 1959. A teacher from Essendon, in Melbourne’s West, he grew up in the north-western suburbs of Melbourne. He has had a life-long interest in politics, inspired by his family’s contribution over generations. He is the grandson of Bill Barry, first leader of what became known as the Democratic Labor Party.

Peter completed secondary school at St. Joseph’s College, North Melbourne 1976. He has among the most extensive academic record of any graduate of the University of Melbourne, and an extremely broad background in formal and informal studies relevant to policy development. He has Degrees in Law, Arts and Letters, a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Studies and Master’s Degree in Asian Studies and has completed a Diploma in Education.

He has studied languages at Beijing Language Institute (now Beijing University of Language and Culture), the Nanjing National Normal University, the Mandarin Training Centre in Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Institute in Tokyo, and Scuola Leonardo Da Vinci in Rome.

Peter has a particular interest in East Asia and speaks three East Asian languages (Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian/Malay). He has traveled Australia and much of the rest of the world, especially East Asia, over the last twenty-five years.

Peter studied Law at the University of Melbourne, was admitted to practice by the High Court of Australia in 1992, and was a practitioner at the Victorian Bar in 1993 and 1994. He then lectured in Australian Law at tertiary level in Malaysia for almost two years.

He has traveled to approximately thirty-five countries, including all the ASEAN countries. Has spent approximately two years in China, including Taiwan.

His main academic and personal interests are:
* Australian law
* Chinese and Indonesian law
* Asian cultures
* Japanese law, especially the Japanese Constitution
* Politics and history, especially the politics of our near neighbours
* Languages (Mandarin, Japanese, and Indonesian)
* Foreign investment
* Economic development.