Career
He served as a Senator for from 1967 until his resignation in January 1986. He was subsequently elected to the division of Bass in the Tasmanian House of Assembly at the February 1986 election. Rae served as a Shadow Minister with portfolios that included Industry and Commerce, Finance, and Education and Science.
Rae led a four-year investigation of the capital markets of Australia, particularly the Stock Exchanges.
The ‘Rae Report’ led to the establishment of what is now the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. He was also leader of several of the Australian delegations to European Parliament, the Council of Europe and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Following his period as an elected member, Rae practiced law at Rae & Partners law firm in Tasmania.
In the term 1993 - 2004 he served as Chair of the Hydro-Electric Commission. Since November 2003, Rae was Vice President of the World Wind Energy Association and became President in October 2015.
Rae is also Honorary Chairman of the International Renewable Energy Alliance (REN Alliance) which is the world alliance of the major world renewable energy associations (bioenergy, hydro, wind, solar and geothermal).
He is on the Board of several of the other Alliance partners. He participated in the 2009 Copenhagen Conference where he chaired a joint side event with the International Renewable Energy Alliance (REN Alliance) and the newly formed International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). He was leader of the Renewable Energy industry delegation to the 14th & 15th sessions of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (Circuit Switched Data ) in New York when energy was the subject.
He was the moderator for the Renewable Energy side event at the Circuit Switched Data . He chaired sessions of the World Energy Conference which was held in Sydney in 2004 and was a key note speaker at the recent National Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development held in Canberra.
