Rick Colless

Last updated

Rick Colless
Member of Legislative Council of New South Wales
In office
30 August 2000 –23 March 2019
Deputy Opposition Whip in the Legislative Council
Assumed office
27 August 2002
Preceded by Richard Bull
Personal details
Born (1952-11-12) 12 November 1952 (age 68)
Tamworth, New South Wales
Political party The Nationals
Spouse(s)Geraldine Faith Barton (nee Porter)
Children3

Richard Hargrave Colless (born 12 November 1952) is an Australian politician. Colless was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2000 to 2019, representing the National Party. [1]

Contents

Early years and background

Colless was born in Tamworth to Kenneth Hargrave Colless and Yvonne Tipling and was raised on a rural property at Bundarra, near Inverell. He undertook primary school by correspondence from the Blackfriars Correspondence School in Sydney; and secondary education at Tamworth and Singleton High Schools. Colless won a cadetship with the Soil Conservation Service of the New South Wales, that led to studies at Hawkesbury Agricultural College. Working for the Soil Conservation Service for the next 26 years, he worked in various country towns including Henty, Cowra, Goulburn, Gunnedah and Inverell where he settled in 1987. [2]

In 1991, he was elected to Inverell Shire Council and served three terms as a councillor and became its mayor in 1999.

He became the Chairman of the Inverell Branch of the National Party of Australia in 1996 and served in that role until 1999. He became Chairman of the New England Electorate Council in 1999 and served a term during 2000 on the Central Executive of the National Party.

Parliamentary career

He was appointed to the Legislative Council on 30 August 2000 following the resignation of the National Party MLC Richard Bull. He was reelected in the 2007 and 2011 NSW elections.

Colless served as Chief Whip for The Nationals in the Upper House from 2002 until 2015, chaired the Standing Committee on State Development from 2011 to 2015 and was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary for Natural Resources and Regional Planning from March 2015. He has also served on a number of other committees during his parliamentary term.

Personal information

Colless's great great grandfather Richard Hargrave, [3] and his great, great uncle John Fletcher Hargrave, [4] both served in the New South Wales Parliament. Richard Hargrave came to New South Wales in 1838 aboard the sailing ship Argyle. Hargrave was elected as the first member for New England and Macleay in the first Legislative Assembly of New South Wales. [2] Hargrave's older brother, John Fletcher Hargrave QC, arrived in New South Wales in 1856 and served in the Legislative Council from 1859 until 1861. [2] John Hargrave was also appointed as a Representative of Government in the Legislative Council and served as Solicitor-General and Attorney-General until 1865.

In 1976, Colless married Toni Christine Brown, and together they have three children. They divorced in 2010 and in 2012 Colless married Geraldine Barton (née Porter).

Related Research Articles

Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council who served in the 54th Parliament were elected at the 1995 and 1999 elections. As members serve eight-year terms, half of the Council was elected in 1995 and did not face re-election in 1999, and the members elected in 1999 did not face re-election until 2007. The President was Virginia Chadwick.</ref>

Electoral district of Northern Tablelands

Northern Tablelands is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is currently held by Adam Marshall representing the National Party, following a by-election triggered by the resignation of independent member Richard Torbay. The electorate currently includes Uralla Shire, Armidale Regional Council, Glen Innes Severn, Inverell Shire, Gwydir Shire and Moree Plains Shire.

Eastern Division of Camden was an electoral district for the Legislative Assembly in the then British colony of New South Wales from 1856 to 1857. Its name was changed to East Camden in January 1858, and it was largely replaced by the district of Illawarra in June 1859.

The Gwydir was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, created in 1859, when Liverpool Plains and Gwydir was divided, and named after and including the Gwydir River. In 1894 it was abolished and largely replaced by Moree and Barwon. It was re-created in the 1904 re-distribution of electorates following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90. It consisted of the abolished seat of Moree and part of Inverell. It was abolished in 1920, with the introduction of proportional representation and largely merged, along with Tamworth, into Namoi.

William Scully (Australian politician) Australian politician

William James Scully was an Australian politician and farmer. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and held ministerial office in the governments of John Curtin and Ben Chifley, serving as Minister for Commerce (1941–1942), Commerce and Agriculture (1942–1946) and Vice-President of the Executive Council (1946–1949). He served in the House of Representatives from 1937 to 1949, representing the New South Wales seat of Gwydir.

Jonathan Richard O'Dea is an Australian politician and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Davidson for the Liberal Party since 2007.

John Fletcher Hargrave was a British-born Australian politician and judge.

Richard Hargrave was an Australian politician and a pastoralist.

Trevor Khan Australian politician

Trevor John Khan, an Australian politician, is a Nationals member of the New South Wales Legislative Council and serves as Deputy President and Chair of Committees. Khan has been a member of the Council since 24 March 2007.

Richard Thomas Marshall Bull is a former Australian politician. The son of federal National Party Senator Tom Bull and his wife Jessie, he was a farmer and grazier at Narrandera and Holbrook. On 12 March 1970 he married Patricia Anne Jeffreys; they have three daughters and a son.

Geoffrey Robertson Crawford, DCM was an Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for the Country Party from 1950 to 1976, and served as Minister for Agriculture from 1968 until 1975.

Dibbs ministry (1891–1894)

The third Dibbs ministry, the 27th ministry of the Colony of New South Wales, was led by Sir George Dibbs, leader of the Protectionist Party, following the 1891 New South Wales election, which saw the Labour Party win seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and the balance of power. With no party having a majority, Sir Henry Parkes held on as Premier until October 1891 when he lost a vote in the Legislative Assembly, causing Parkes to resign as Premier and leader of the Free Trade Party. Dibbs formed the ministry on 23 October 1891, with Labour support, and comprised 10 ministers.

Reg Downing

Robert Reginald Downing, AC QC was an Australian lawyer, textile worker, union organiser and politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council for the Labor Party for 31 years from 1940 to 1972 and also served as the Attorney General, Minister for Justice and Vice-President of the Executive Council from 1941 to 1965.

2013 Northern Tablelands state by-election election result for Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia

A by-election was held for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Northern Tablelands on 25 May 2013. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of independent member Richard Torbay, which was announced on 20 March 2013. Adam Marshall was declared elected on 28 May 2013.

Adam Marshall Australian politician

Adam John Marshall, an Australian politician, is the New South Wales Minister for Agriculture and Western New South Wales in the second Berejiklian ministry since April 2019. Marshall is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, and has represented Northern Tablelands since a 2013 by-election, as a member of The Nationals.

Cyril Joseph Cahill was an Australian politician.

1901 New South Wales state election Colonial election for New South Wales, Australia in July 1901

The 1901 New South Wales state election was held on 3 July 1901 for all of the 125 seats in the 19th New South Wales Legislative Assembly and it was conducted in single-member constituencies with a first past the post voting system. The Parliamentary Electorates Act of 1893 had conferred the right to vote on every male British subject over 21 years of age who was resident in New South Wales for a year or more. The 19th parliament of New South Wales was dissolved on 11 June 1901 by the Governor, Lord Beauchamp, on the advice of the Premier, John See.

Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council (New South Wales)

The Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council, known before 1 July 1966 as Representative of the Government in the Legislative Council, is an office held in New South Wales by the most senior minister in the New South Wales Legislative Council, elected to lead the governing party in the council. Though the leader in the Council does not have the power of the office of Premier, there are some parallels between the latter's status in the Legislative Assembly and the former's in the Council. This means that the leader has responsibility for all policy areas, acts as the government's principal spokesperson in the upper house and has priority in gaining recognition from the President of the Council to speak in debate.

Eastern Division of Camden, an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales was created in 1856 and abolished in 1859.

A by-election was held for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly electorate of Illawarra on 28 October 1859 because John Hargrave resigned to accept an appointment to the Legislative Council.

References

  1. ↑ "The Hon. Richard Hargrave Colless, HD App Sci(Agric) (1952 - )". Members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Richard Colless (11 October 2000). "Legislative Council Rural Assistance Amendment Bill Hansard (Extract)" (pdf). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . New South Wales: Legislative Council. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  3. ↑ "Mr Richard Hargrave (1817-1905)". Members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  4. ↑ "Mr John Fletcher Hargrave, QC (1815-1885)". Members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 11 March 2019.
    Bennett, J M (1972). "Hargrave, John Fletcher (1815-1885)". Australian Dictionary of Biography . Melbourne University Press. ISSN   1833-7538 . Retrieved 19 April 2019– via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.