Editing Duncan Kerr (section)

===Politics===

Kerr was the Labor candidate in the [[Division of Braddon]] in the [[1977 Australian federal election]], losing to future [[Premier of Tasmania]] [[Ray Groom]]. In the Australian federal election in 1987, Kerr defeated the sitting Liberal member, [[Michael Hodgman]] [[Queen's Counsel|QC]], for the Hobart-based seat of Denison to become the first Labor member elected from Tasmania since the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in 1975.

Kerr served in the [[Australian House of Representatives]] as Member for [[Division of Denison|Denison]] from 11 July 1987 to 19 July 2010. Prior to entering politics, Kerr acted as [[Crown Counsel]] in the Tasmanian Solicitor-General's Department, as lecturer in constitutional law and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the [[University of Papua New Guinea]], and as Principal Solicitor for the [[Aboriginal Legal Service of New South Wales]].

Kerr served as [[Minister for Justice (Australia)|Minister for Justice]] from 1993 to 1996, and briefly also as [[Attorney-General of Australia|Attorney-General]] in 1993. Prime Minister [[Paul Keating]]'s original choice for Attorney-General in 1993 had been [[Michael Lavarch]], but Lavarch's re-election was delayed by the death of an opposing candidate for the seat of [[Division of Dickson|Dickson]]; Kerr held the portfolio in the interim until Lavarch won the resulting supplementary election. Kerr served as Attorney-General for 26 days.

Kerr was a member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry from 1996 to 2001. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs in the Rudd Ministry in 2007.

Prior to his appointment to the [[First Rudd Ministry]], Kerr was Co-Convenor of the Australian Parliamentary Group for Drug Law Reform, a cross-party group that advocates harm minimisation as being more effective, more cost-efficient and less harmful than zero-tolerance when it comes to dealing with drug use.

On 14 December 2009, Kerr resigned his appointment as Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs and indicated he intended to return to legal practice. Kerr retired from politics at the [[2010 Australian federal election|2010 election]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26053696-5013871,00.html |title=Duncan Kerr to retire from politics: The Australian 10/9/2009 |access-date=10 September 2009 |archive-date=11 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911184602/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26053696-5013871,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Upon Kerr's retirement, the previously safe Labor seat of Denison was won by [[Andrew Wilkie]], an independent.