Rob Pyne
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Rob Pyne MP |
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| Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Cairns |
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Assumed office 31 January 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Gavin King |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Robert John Pyne 23 April 1967 Gordonvale, Queensland |
| Political party | Independent (2016–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
Australian Labor Party (2015–2016) |
| Occupation | Lawyer, disability advocate |
| Website | http://www.robpyne.com.au |
Robert John "Rob" Pyne (born 23 April 1967) is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland since January 2015, representing the electorate of Cairns; he was elected for the Australian Labor Party, but resigned to sit as an independent in March 2016. Pyne was formerly a two-term councillor for the Cairns Regional Council. Pyne is Australia's first quadriplegic member of parliament.
Pyne was born in Gordonvale, the son of former Cairns mayor Tom Pyne, and raised in the suburb of Edmonton. He suffered a spinal cord injury in December 1991 through breaking his neck in a diving accident when he was 23 years old, which resulted in him becoming quadriplegic. He spent nine months recovering in the Princess Alexandra Hospital's Spinal Unit in Brisbane before going on to gain a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History and Politics from James Cook University in 1999 and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Queensland University of Technology in 2002. In 1997, he served as President of the James Cook University Student Association.
After attaining his degrees, Rob worked as a lawyer for the Public Trustee of Queensland, and as Regional Disability Liaison Officer at James Cook University Cairns before becoming a politician. He first ran in 2008 as Division 3 councillor in the Cairns Regional Council elections, beating the former Deputy Mayor Terry James He inspected the Cairns Regional Council head office prior to taking up his role to ensure it was wheelchair accessible. He was re-elected in 2012. Division 3 includes the suburbs of Bayview Heights, Lamb Range, Mount Sheridan, White Rock and Woree. In March 2014 a Local Government formal complaint was filed against him for breaching Cairns Regional Council's media policy rules.
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