James Guest

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James Vincent Chester Guest (born 20 October 1937) is an Australian former politician.

He was born in Melbourne to James Chester Guest, a business manager and Chairman of the Commercial Bank of Australia, and Patricia, née Hammond. A graduate of Geelong Grammar School, he attended Brasenose College at Oxford University, where he received a Master of Arts; he became a barrister-at-law in Lincoln's Inn in 1960. From 1961 he was an associate to Sir Owen Dixon, Chief Justice of Australia; in 1963 he returned to Victoria as a barrister. In 1976 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council as a Liberal member for Monash. He served on a number of committees^[1] but never rose from the backbench. He retired in 1996.^[2]

Though never on the front bench in government he followed his circulation of lengthy policy papers as a new member by taking the leading part in reform of public sector superannuation as a member of parliamentary committees in Opposition while writing innovative policies for the Arts and Federal Affairs as a Shadow Minister and taking an influential part in both extending the scope for Upper House committees and, as a member of a sub-committee of the Australian Constitutional Convention influencing the report on the powers of the Governor-General.

Under the Kennett government he was Chairman of the Parliamentary Law Reform Committee and as such responsible for substantial reports on Reforming the Law of Wills^[3],  Health Services and Legal Liability, Phoenix companies and the Jury system involving study of jury systems in situ in six countries.