Peter Black (Australian politician)

Peter Laurence Black OAM (born 14 June 1943) is an Australian former who served as the member for Murray-Darling in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly between 1999 and 2007. Prior to this, he was mayor of Broken Hill from 1980 until 1999.^[1]

Career

Black was born in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville and educated at Sydney Boy's Technical High School and received a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales. He was a Science teacher at Willyama High School in Broken Hill before running for New South Wales Parliament. Black became a Broken Hill Council Alderman in 1977 and served a record 19 years as mayor of Broken Hill from September 1980 until September 1999.^[2]

Black represented Murray-Darling from 1999 to 2007 for the Labor Party.^[3] He was accused of having a drinking problem by other parliamentarians, including his political opponents.^[4] Black lost his seat at the 2007 New South Wales state election, after a redistribution gave the expanded Murray-Darling seat an overall National Party majority.