Bert van Manen

Judi van Manen

​

(m. 1987)​

Bert van Manen MP
Chief Opposition Whip in the House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 July 2022
Children	2
Education	Waterford Primary School Waterford West Primary School Kingston State High School
Occupation	Financial Advisor Politician
Website	Official website

Albertus Johannes "Bert" van Manen (born 24 March 1965) is an Australian politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives since the 2010 federal election, representing the Division of Forde. He is a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland and sits with the Liberal Party in federal parliament. He has been the party's chief whip in the House of Representatives since July 2019.

Early life

Bert Van Manen was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to Dutch immigrants. His father was a ceramic tiler. His family moved to Waterford when he was young. He was educated at Kingston, Waterford and Waterford West primary schools and at Kingston State High. ^[1]

In 1987 he married Judi, and they have two sons. ^[1]

Bert Van Manen was employed as a bank officer for 15 years, from 1983 to 1998, before running his own business as a financial advisor from 1999 to 2010. ^[2]

In 2007 Van Manen co-founded Vangrove Financial Planning with Andrew Cosgrove. He resigned as director in April 2012 but retained a 50% ownership; one month later KPMG administrators were called in when the firm collapsed owing creditors $1.5 million. ^[3]

Van Manen is on the board of the Dunamis International College of Bible Ministries, revealed in his maiden speech. ^[4]

Political career

In 2007, Bert Van Manen was the Family First Party candidate in the seat of Rankin. He received 3.53% of the primary vote in that election.

In the 2010 federal election, van Manen won the Division of Forde from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) incumbent Brett Raguse. He retained his seat at the 2013 federal election, 2016 federal election, 2019 federal elections, and the 2022 Australian federal election.

In August 2016 he was appointed to the position of Government Whip. ^[2] He has served as a Member of the Joint Statutory Committee on Law Enforcement; Joint Standing Committee on Law Enforcement; House of Representatives Standing Committee on Law Enforcement and House of Representatives Select Committee on Law Enforcement. ^[2]

He was endorsed by the evangelical Christian Dunamis Church, which provided church volunteers to aid his election campaign with "booth work, letterbox drops and many other things." ^{[1] [5]}

In 2017, the Division of Forde voted "Yes" in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, with 61% in support of same-sex marriage. Van Manen had campaigned against same-sex marriage, and abstained from the parliamentary vote. ^{[6] [7]}

In January 2018, it was reported that several changes to van Manen's Wikipedia page that included deleting references to his failed business, Vangrove Financial Planning, were traced to parliamentary IP addresses. A spokesperson for Bert Van Manen described the edits as having been "well-meaning." ^[8]

Journalist and former political staffer Niki Savva speculates in her book Plots and Prayers that van Manen may have been a key instrument in the 2018 leadership spill which removed Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister, as Van Manen was deputy Whip and a part of the Morrison Bible Group. ^[9] Van Manen's was one of six crucial votes that determined Scott Morrison to be the new leader. ^[10]

On 2 July 2019, following the 2019 federal election, van Manen replaced Nola Marino as Chief Government Whip in the House of Representatives. ^[2]

Van Manen is a member of the centre-right faction of the Liberal Party. ^{[11] [12]}

Electoral history

House of Representatives

Election year	Electorate	Party		Votes	FP%	+/-	2PP%	+/-	Result
2007	Rankin		Family First	2,827	3.53	1.59	-		Fourth
2010	Forde		Liberal National	30,967	44.08	0.01	51.63	4.99	First
2013				32,271	42.54	1.54	54.38	2.75	First
2016				34,096	40.63	1.91	50.63	3.75	First
2019				39,819	43.50	2.87	58.6	7.97	First

External links

• Bert van Manen MP official website
• Search or browse Hansard for Bert van Manen at OpenAustralia.org

References

1. "It is with great honour that I...: 20 Oct 2010: House debates (OpenAustralia.org)". openaustralia.org.au. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
2. "Mr Bert van Manen MP". Senators and Members of the Parliament of Australia . Retrieved 6 November 2021.
3. McKenna, Michael. "Peter Beattie rival Bert van Manen led firm in 'director-related collapse'". The Australian. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
4. "Governor-General's: Address-in-Reply". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . Commonwealth of Australia: House of Representatives. 20 October 2010. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
5. Maizey, Judith (8 March 2016). "Dunamis Church endorses three Logan candidates in upcoming local government election". Courier Mail - Albert & Logan News. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
6. "Truth behind 98,000 new voters". NewsComAu. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
7. Henderson, political reporter Anna (8 December 2017). "This is how everyone voted — and didn't vote — on same-sex marriage". ABC News. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
8. Baker, Hannah (15 January 2018). "Forde MP's Wikipedia page edits 'well-meaning'". Beaudesert Times. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
9. Murphy, Katharine (1 July 2019). "Dutton's Keystone Cops and Morrison's prayer: five key moments from Niki Savva's book". The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
10. Martin, Sarah (20 April 2019). "Scott Morrison: 'master of the middle' may pull Coalition out of a muddle". The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
11. Massola, James (20 March 2021). "Who's who in the Liberals' left, right and centre factions?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
12. Massola, James. "How Morrison's shattering defeat gave Dutton a seismic shift in factional power". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2023.

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Brett Raguse	Member for Forde 2010–present	Incumbent