Greens stalwart Dr John Kaye had great depth of learning and passion

THE Greens member of the NSW Legislative Council Dr John Kaye (left) has died after a battle with cancer.

Greens MLC Dr John Kaye has passed away after a battle with cancer.

POLITICIANS generally speak out about matters to do with sustainable energy and the environment only after a detailed briefing from staffers. But John Kaye was uniquely qualified to speak about such matters based on his postgraduate degrees from Melbourne Uni and Berkeley.

Kaye, who died yesterday after a battle with cancer, matched his erudition with passion, compassion, drive and commitment.

Born on October 23, 1955, in Melbourne, Kaye gained bachelor and masters degrees in Engineering from the University of Melbourne, and went on to work for the State Electricity Commission of Victoria as an engineer. There he learned that an energy industry based on fossil fuels was unsustainable. His growing interest in alternative energies and greenhouse gases then took him to University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a PhD.

Returning to Australia he became a postdoctoral fellow at the ANU and taught electrical engineering at the University of NSW. But after a career of teaching about changing the world’s fossil fuel dependence, and acting as an adviser to the Greens in the late ’90s and early 2000s, he decided the could do more good in the political arena across a range of things he was passionate about, such as worker’s rights, public utilities and public education.

He was deeply involved with the Greens campaign during the 2003 state election but stood for the senate during the 2004 federal election, narrowly missing out on a seat.

Electoral success came in 2007 when he and Lee Rhiannon were both elected to the Legislative Council.

With relatively few members, Kaye and his Greens colleagues all handled a broad range of portfolios. Among Kaye’s were education, energy, treasury, consumer affairs, finance and services, water, hospitality gaming and racing.

When he first arrived in parliament he noted the corruption that beset the Labor Party and worked against their desire to privatise electricity. He also campaigned successfully against the Tillega Dam in the Hunter Valley. He sought to rid cruelty in the greyhound racing industry and his Steel Industry Protection bill to protect workers in the industry is still before parliament.

His colleague, Greens NSW MP David Shoebridge, paid tribute to Kaye yesterday saying “The Greens NSW will continue to benefit from John’s work in establishing a clear path to NSW becoming the first state with 100 per cent renewable electricity.”

He is survived by his partner Lynne.

Originally published as Greens stalwart Dr John Kaye had great depth of learning and passion