Andrew McIntosh (Australian politician)
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician. He has been a Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria in Australia. Together with the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house, it sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Melbourne.-History:...
since 1999, representing the seat of Kew
Electoral district of Kew
The Electoral district of Kew is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It lies a few kilometres east of Melbourne and is centred around the suburb of Kew and also contains parts of Balwyn and Canterbury....
. He is currently Shadow Minister for Corrections, Crime Prevention and Integrity of Government and Freedom of Information. He is the manager for Opposition Business in the Legislative Assembly.
Early life
McIntosh was born in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, and raised in North Balwyn, attending Bellevue Primary School. He later attended Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, located in South Yarra and Caulfield, suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
1965–73. He received a Bachelor of Economics in 1978 from the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
, a Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws
The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...
in 1981 from the University of Tasmania
University of Tasmania
The University of Tasmania is a medium-sized public Australian university based in Tasmania, Australia. Officially founded on 1 January 1890, it was the fourth university to be established in nineteenth-century Australia...
, and a Certificate of Mediation in 1998 from Bond University
Bond University
Bond University is a private university located in Robina, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It is also the first private university established in Australia...
. He began practising as a lawyer in 1982, and was called to the bar in 1985. He was an Associate of the former Chief Justice of Victoria.
He is married with one son.
Political career
McIntosh had joined the Liberal Party of AustraliaLiberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
in 1982, and had been active in local branches. In 1999 he was preselected as the Liberal candidate for Kew
Electoral district of Kew
The Electoral district of Kew is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It lies a few kilometres east of Melbourne and is centred around the suburb of Kew and also contains parts of Balwyn and Canterbury....
, a safe seat being vacated by sitting member Jan Wade. He was duly elected, and was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary from Infrastructure in 2001. In 2002 he became Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations and Shadow Attorney-General.
In 2006 he was moved to the portfolios of Police and Emergency Services, Corrections, and Manager of Opposition Business. In March 2009, Andrew McIntosh attracted attention for criticising the government for not releasing a weather briefing it had received predicting an "absolute extreme fire weather spike day" four days before the Black Saturday bushfires.
According to a Sunday Herald Sun investigation, McIntosh has achieved little voter recognition as a frontbencher. Six months out from the 2010 state election
Victorian state election, 2010
The 2010 Victorian state election was held on 27 November. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party government, led by John Brumby, was defeated by the centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition, led by Ted Baillieu....
, not one of 50 voters surveyed could identify him as the Shadow Minister for Corrections.
McIntosh claims that assault in Victoria has doubled since 1999 and has been instrumental in Coalition policy advocating abolishing suspended sentence
Suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...
s, a policy which was later mirrored by the Labor government. He also helped to develop Coalition policy advocating 1600 extra police, which was later also adopted by the government. He has advocated greater freedom of information and transparency under the Brumby government. He alleges that a dirt unit exists inside the Department of Premier and Cabinet, after in 2006 a notebook, pushed under his office door and belonging to an advisor to the Premier, referred to an "index search" on Ted Baillieu
Ted Baillieu
Edward Norman "Ted" Baillieu MLA is an Australian politician. He is currently the Premier of Victoria and the member for the Legislative Assembly seat of Hawthorn...
's wife and three children.