Perth Voice Interactive

WHERE is John Hyde? That is the question people have been asking since the former Perth Labor MP was defeated at the state elections three months ago.

The loss meant it was the first time in 18 years Mr Hyde held no elected office.

The former journalist and actor joined Vincent council in 1995 at its birth as a new town and became acting mayor when Jack Marks died in 1998.

He won the top job in his own right with an overwhelming majority, before shifting to the state seat of Perth for Labor in 2001.

He served three high-profile terms—he was WA’s first openly gay MP—before being booted out in March by Eleni Evangel in a statewide Liberal landslide.

Now Mr Hyde is discovering FIFO life, as he rotates four weeks working in Asia and one week back in Perth.

He works as an adviser to the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development, and is a board member of the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption.

“It’s invigorating working with civil society groups on progressive policy and helping to get their voices heard,” he says. “The UN is undertaking a number of reviews as nations, including Australia, look to enhance the millennium development goals beyond 2015.

“Civil society is seen as an equal partner with governments in these forums.”

Recently Mr Hyde undertook workshops for the World Bank in Baku, Azerbaijan on anti-corruption and transparency in extractive industries payments.

In May he spent six days at the UN HQ in Bangkok, as Asia-Pacific nations met to prepare new agreements on population and development.

He’s also delivered a population health workshop in Indonesia, and is currently in Kazakhstan presenting another workshop there.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK