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Joseph Max Berinson (7 January 1932 – 2 June 2018) was an Australian politician who represented the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the Australian House of Representatives and the Western Australian Legislative Council. He was Minister for the Environment in the Whitlam government for several months in 1975, later serving a decade as Attorney-General of Western Australia.
Berinson attended Highgate Primary School and won a scholarship to attend Perth Modern School. After matriculating in 1948, he studied pharmacy at Perth Technical College. He did training at a pharmacy in Forrest Place, where he gained his formative political experience. Forrest Place was the location of many political speeches and rallies, including by Prime Ministers Ben Chifley and Robert Menzies. Berinson labelled Menzies' speech as "very off-putting". In 1953, he graduated, began working as a pharmacist in Mount Lawley, and joined the Mount Lawley branch of the Australian Labor Party. Over the years, he would have various executive roles in the Mount Lawley branch and the state executive.
On 9 September 1958, Berinson married Jeanette Bekhor, whom he met at the Zionist Youth League, at the Perth Synagogue. They had three daughters and one son together. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Berinson built a high-profile within Perth's Jewish community, eventually becoming the co-editor of the Jewish newspaper The Maccabean.
Berinson still had yet to complete his law degree when he was elected, so he continued his studies whilst a member of parliament and got his exams deferred to 1970. He would study on the plane to and from Canberra and in the Parliament House Library late at night. His lecturers would tape their presentations that Berinson was unable to attend. He finished the degree by the end of 1970, winning the H. C. F. Keall Prize for best fourth-year law student and the J. A. Wood Prize for best student in the humanities.
Berinson was re-elected in the 1972 federal election, in which Gough Whitlam was elected prime minister. Berinson was not elected to the ministry and did not expect to either, but Whitlam was disappointed that he was not elected to the ministry.
He was elected chairman of committees in February 1975. He was then appointed Minister for the Environment in July 1975, serving until the government's dismissal on 11 November 1975 and then losing his seat in the December 1975 election. After Berinson's defeat in 1975, he was admitted as a legal practitioner in 1977.
In 1991, he was identified as one of five members of the government most associated with WA Inc transactions.O'Brien P. The Origins and Development of WA's Executive State, in The Executive State —WA Inc & The Constitution, (Perth 1991), p. 132. The other main players were Burke, Dowding, deputy premier David Parker and industrial development minister Julian Grill.
Berinson died on 2 June 2018, aged 86. His burial took place the following day at Karrakatta Cemetery. He was survived by his wife Jeanette and their four children.
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