Warren Entsch
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The Honourable Warren Entsch MP |
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|---|---|
Entsch in 2012
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| Chief Opposition Whip in the House of Representatives | |
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In office 14 September 2010 – 18 September 2013 |
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| Leader | Tony Abbott |
| Preceded by | Alex Somlyay |
| Succeeded by | Philip Ruddock |
| Member of the Australian Parliament for Leichhardt |
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Assumed office 21 August 2010 |
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| Preceded by | Jim Turnour |
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In office 2 March 1996 – 17 October 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Peter Dodd |
| Succeeded by | Jim Turnour |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
31 May 1950 Babinda, Queensland |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party |
Liberal (federal) Liberal National (state) |
| Spouse(s) | Yolonde Entsch (nee Werner) |
| Children | 3 |
| Residence | Cairns |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Website | www.warrenentsch.com.au |
Warren George Entsch (born 31 May 1950) is an Australian politician currently serving as a Liberal National member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Leichhardt in Queensland. He represented Leichhardt from March 1996 to his retirement at the dissolution of parliament in October 2007 prior to the November 2007 election for the Liberal Party of Australia. He was re-elected to the seat in August 2010, sitting federally with the Liberals. At the 2016 Australian Federal Election he was re-elected as the Federal Member for Leichhardt with 39.4% first preference votes marking his seventh election victory in 20 years.
Entsch was born in Babinda, Queensland and served in the Royal Australian Air Force 1969–78. He was a maintenance fitter and welder, real estate agent, farmer and grazier and company director before entering politics.
He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources 1998–2001 and was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources from 2001 to 2006. In September 2004, Entsch publicly spoke against his party's anti-gay-marriage stance, describing laws to prevent gay marriage as "offensive" and "unnecessary". As a result of his pro-gay statements, the Family First Party – which preferenced Liberal/National Coalition candidates ahead of Labor candidates in almost every other seat, nationwide – directed their preferences to Labor instead of Entsch. Nevertheless, he won re-election with an increased majority of both the primary and two-party-preferred vote.
In December 2005, he pledged support for a civil union scheme after Britain began granting civil partnerships. He was interviewed for The Pink Broad (Issue 15, published Wednesday 22 February 2006), a fortnightly gay and lesbian newspaper, in which he confirmed that he planned to sponsor a private member's bill in Federal Parliament within months that promised to eradicate discrimination and the inequities faced by Australia's gay and lesbian population under Federal law. He went on to say in the article, "I would think that if I was a gay activist, people would say 'Oh, just another bloody fairy out there trying to push his own agenda', but because of my background, people are a little bit puzzled by it and sitting up and listening. . . and in fact I'm getting a lot of people that are not gay coming up to me and saying to me 'Hey, you know, we've got gay friends and family too'. And this is what I've found here, in this place as well. . . mind you, there are some who are still a little bemused. They don't quite understand it."
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