Bevan Ernest Lawrence is a Western Australian barrister and political campaigner. He is the older brother of the ALP politician and former Premier of Western Australia, Carmen Lawrence.

Lawrence attended Aquinas College, Perth and subsequently studied law at the University of Western Australia. He graduated as a Bachelor of Law in 1966.<ref>From the biographical notes on Contributors page of The Samuel Griffiths Society's website pages pertaining to their 1993 Fremantle conference.</ref>

He has been licensed to practice law in Western Australia since 19 March 1968<ref>List of licensed legal practitioners in W.A. from the website of the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia </ref> and has specialised in insurance law.

In 1987, he was a spokesperson for the prominent activist group People Against the Australia Card which organised a public rally of over 40,000 people through the centre of Perth in September 1987, in a synchronised national protest which led to abandonment of the relevant legislation by the Hawke Labor government, which had used the issue as a trigger for the 1987 double-dissolution election.

He was a founder, in 1989, of People for Fair and Open Government (PFOG), the very effective activist group which campaigned for political reform in Western Australia during the WA Inc era. PFOG played a significant role in persuading the government led by Lawrence's sister to request a Royal Commission into the WA Inc matters.

In 1998 he joined the Australian component of the successful international campaign against the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment.

References

External Links

Website of the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia

Link to speech given by Bevan Lawrence to the The Samuel Griffith Society at The Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle, Western Australia, on 5 November 1993; on the topic, "W.A. Inc.: Why Didn't We Hear The Alarm Bells?". Retrieved on 2 April 2008.

Link to an article by Hal Colebatch, published in The Australian on 5 March 2007, in which Bevan Lawrence is quoted as a source on WA Inc matters

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