Brendan Smyth

Who is Brendan Smyth?

Brendan Michael Smyth is a Liberal Party of Australia politician. From 2002 to 2006 he was the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Capital Territory. He retains his shadow previous portfolios of Health, Ageing, Business and Tourism at present.

He also served briefly as Deputy Chief Minister in 2000.

Smyth was born in Sydney, but moved to Canberra in May 1969. He worked at the National Library of Australia until 25 March 1995, when he ran for the Liberal Party in a by-election for the federal House of Representatives seat of Canberra. Normally a safe Labor seat, its previous member Ros Kelly had left under a cloud, having been forced to resign her ministry a year earlier over the sports rorts affair, and Smyth received a 16.1% swing to claim the seat. At the Australian federal election on 2 March 1996, Smyth contested the new federal House of Representatives seat of Namadgi, even though it had been drawn with a notional Labor majority of 10.9 percent. He was defeated by Annette Ellis in what proved to be the only gain by Labor in that election.

He subsequently shifted to territory politics, winning election to the Legislative Assembly in the 1998 election representing the Tuggeranong-based multimember electorate of Brindabella.