Grant McBride

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Grant Anthony McBride (29 December 1949 – 12 February 2018) was an Australian Labor Party politician who served in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing The Entrance on the Central Coast from 1992 to 2011.

He won Labor preselection in 1991 but lost to Liberal incumbent Bob Graham. A late redistribution led to a Court of Disputed Returns, and a by-election in 1992, which McBride won and began his long service in parliament.

McBride held government roles as Minister for Gaming and Racing from 2003 to 2007 and as Minister for the Central Coast from 2005 to 2007. In 2005 he proposed a ban on the Dutch beer Shag, saying its name was offensive. A controversy over a $50,000 overseas trip in 2005–2006 contributed to him losing his ministerial posts in 2007. He then served as Assistant Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly from May 2007 to March 2011. He did not contest the 2011 election.

A civil engineer by training, McBride also worked as an electorate officer to former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. He was married with eight children, including Emma McBride, who is a federal MP. He lived in The Entrance and was a teetotaler and non-gambler. McBride died of Alzheimer's disease in Wyong, New South Wales, in February 2018, aged 68. The local ocean baths at The Entrance were renamed The Grant McBride Baths in his honour.