He was the Labor Party member for Electoral district of Monaro in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1976 to 1988, and served as a minister from 1984 to 1988.
He married Brenda Ann Pye on 18 December 1965 in Sydney and moved to Cooma as senior draughtsman with the Snowy Mountains Authority in 1966.
He joined the Labor Party in 1969 and served as secretary of the [Cooma] branch, New South Wales from 1970 to 1976.
[1] In 1974, Akister was selected as the Labor candidate for the marginal Liberal Party seat of Electoral district of Monaro in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
However, in 1988 the Unsworth Government was defeated at the polls, and Akister was one of the members who lost his seat (to National Party candidate Peter Cochran).