Gerry Bates
Gerard Maxwell Bates (born 13 September 1950) is an Australian environmental lawyer and academic, and former politician.He later emigrated to Australia, and was a lecturer in environmental law at the University of Tasmania until Bob Brown convinced him to run for parliament as a Green Independent in 1986 Tasmanian state election.The Greens held the balance of power, and agreed to give support to the Labor Party to form a minority government when they signed the Labor–Green Accord.Bates resigned from the House of Assembly on 4 May 1995 to contest Queenborough in the Legislative Council, but was unsuccessful.[4] Bates has been a member of the Board of the Environment Protection Authority of NSW since 1996, a member of the State of the Environment Advisory Council since 2004, and a Director of Kimbriki Environmental Enterprises, a regional waste recovery centre and landfill on Sydney's Northern Beaches, since 2006.