Peter Staples is an Australian politician. He was first elected to Parliament

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 in 1983 as the Member for Diamond Valley

Division of Diamond Valley

The Division of Diamond Valley was anAustralian Electoral Division in Victoria.The division was created in 1969 and abolished in 1984. It was named for the Diamond Creek area. It was located in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, including Doncaster, Watsonia, Eltham and Templestowe...

, then represented Jagajaga

Division of Jagajaga

The Division of Jagajaga is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. It is located in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and lies north of the Yarra River...

 after Diamond Valley was abolished in 1984. In 1987, he was appointed Consumer Affairs Minister by Prime Minister Bob Hawke

Bob Hawke

Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....

 in his third ministry

Third Hawke Ministry

The Third Hawke Ministry was the fifty-seventh Australian Commonwealth ministry, and held office from 24 July 1987 to 4 April 1990.Australian Labor Party-Cabinet:*Hon Bob Hawke, AC MP: Prime Minister...

; Staples would remain a junior minister for nearly six years, serving as Minister for Housing and Aged Care

Minister for Housing (Australia)

The Australian Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness is Mark Arbib, who was appointed on 14 September 2010, following the Labor Party's win at the 2010 election...

 and later Aged, Family and Health Services

Minister for Ageing (Australia)

The Australian Minister for Mental Health and Ageing is Mark Butler, who was appointed on 14 September 2010, following the Labor Party's win at the 2010 election...

 in the Hawke and Keating

Paul Keating

Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...

 Ministries.

As ministers in a ALP Government are elected by the ALP caucus, Staples lost his spot in the ministry after the party's victory at the 1993 election when he lost the Caucus vote to Frank Walker. Staples then spent the remainder of his career on the backbenches until his retirement from politics in 1996, as stated in his factual documentary, "The Dance of a Thousand Summers".