Robert Wood (Australian politician)
| Robert Wood | |
|---|---|
| Senator for New South Wales | |
|
In office 11 July 1987 – 12 May 1988 |
|
| Succeeded by | Irina Dunn |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
13 November 1949 Gateshead, England |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party | Nuclear Disarmament Party |
| Occupation | Social worker |
| Nile v Wood | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Court | High Court of Australia as the Court of Disputed Returns |
| Decided | 25 December 1987 |
| Citation(s) | [1987] HCA 62, (1987) 167 CLR 133 |
| Re Wood | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Court | High Court of Australia as the Court of Disputed Returns |
| Decided | 12 May 1988 |
| Citation(s) | [1988] HCA 22, (1987) 167 CLR 145 |
William Robert Wood (born 13 November 1949) is a UK-born Australian who has campaigned on peace and justice issues. He was elected to the Australian Parliament in the 1987 elections as Senator for New South Wales, however the High Court subsequently declared his election was invalid as he was not an Australian citizen at the time.
Robert Wood was born in Gateshead in England. His father was an English steelworker; his mother was Italian. The family emigrated to Australia in 1963 as assisted passage migrants. Wood studied social work in both Sydney and Melbourne, and had a career as a youth and social worker prior to becoming a member of parliament. However, he was unemployed at the time of his election, with one newspaper suggesting he was 'probably the only Member of Parliament to have been elected while on the dole'. Wood has two children.
Wood was a member of the Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP), and was its candidate at the NSW Vaucluse by-election in 1986. The NDP had failed narrowly to win a Senate seat in the 1984 federal election, when Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett had stood under the party's banner. In 1987, the party had a lower profile, and Wood was at the head of its NSW Senate ticket. Though the party received only 1.53 per cent of the vote, Wood was elected as a result of preference flows from other parties, and the quota being nearly halved due to a double dissolution election for all Senate seats. This was the lowest primary vote ever received by a successful minor party or independent candidate in an Australian Senate election.
Wood took his place in the Senate in August 1987.
He immediately faced a court challenge from one of the unsuccessful candidates in the election, the Call to Australia party's Elaine Nile. This case was heard by the High Court sitting as the as the Court of Disputed Returns. There were four grounds of challenge set out in the petition:
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