Tony Street


Anthony Austin Street is a former Australian politician. He served in the House of Representatives from 1966 to 1984, representing the Division of Corangamite for the Liberal Party. He held ministerial office in the Fraser Government, serving as Minister for Labor and Immigration, Employment and Industrial Relations, Industrial Relations, and Minister for Foreign Affairs. His father Geoffrey Street was also a federal government minister.

Early life

Street was born in Melbourne on 8 February 1926, one of two children born to Evora and Geoffrey Street. His father was elected to federal parliament in 1934 and promoted to the ministry in 1938. He was killed in the 1940 Canberra air disaster, when his son was 14 years old.
Street attended Melbourne Grammar School. After leaving school in 1944 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy and served as an able seaman aboard, and.

Political career

In 1966 Street was elected as a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Corangamite division in Victoria, Australia. He remained in this position, winning re-election, until he resigned on 18 January 1984.
From 14 September 1971, during the McMahon Ministry, he was Assistant Minister assisting the Minister for Labour and National Service. In the First Fraser Ministry he became the Minister for Labour and Immigration. In the Second Fraser Ministry he served as Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, and Minister assisting the Prime Minister for Public Service Matters. During the Third Fraser Ministry he served as minister in several posts, including Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations and Minister for Industrial Relations. He served as Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs during the Fourth Fraser Ministry, from 1980 until 1983.
Street supported multilateralism as foreign minister, stating that "in its role as a middle power, Australia needs a foreign policy which encompasses not just bilateral relations but the multilateral diplomacy of international organisations and blocs of countries acting together".

Further details

His prominent public addresses included the 1979 Alfred Deakin Memorial Lecture "Class Conflict or Common Goals" and the 1982 Roy Milne Memorial Lecture "Alliances and Foreign Policy Today". Street has held directorships in several companies and served as a Melbourne Cricket Club committee member. He runs a family property at Lismore.