Matthew Mason-Cox
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Matthew Ryan Mason-Cox is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party of Australia member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since September 2006. He was appointed to the Legislative Council to fill a casual vacancy caused by the early resignation of moderate MLC Patricia Forsythe, who had previously been defeated in a preselection contest in advance of the 2007 election.
Mason-Cox had operated an optometry business in the rural city of Queanbeyan before entering politics, and held degrees in law and commerce. A long-time member of the Liberal Party of Australia, he decided to contest preselection for a regional seat in the state upper house, the New South Wales Legislative Council in advance of the 2007 election, challenging incumbent Patricia Forsythe, an outspoken moderate MP. He won the support of the party's ruling hard-right faction, headed by powerbroker David Clarke, and his victory was sealed when the moderates and the hard-right agreed on a deal that would protect both moderate MLC Don Harwin and hard-right MLC Charlie Lynn from preselection challenges. Mason-Cox's margin was somewhat larger than expected, however, boosted by regional Liberal delegates unimpressed with the fact that a seat assigned to rural areas was being represented from an MP from the north shore of Sydney, the state capital. [1]
The successful preselection challenge would have seen Mason-Cox enter parliament at the 2007 election, but his career began earlier than expected when Forsythe suddenly resigned on September 13, 2006, six months short of the conclusion of her term. [2] Mason-Cox was thus appointed to the resulting casual vacancy, and took his seat in parliament on September 28. [3] He raised the state of infrastructure in the Monaro region and the ongoing battle between New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory over water rights in the Queanbeyan region as early legislative priorities. [4]
[edit] References
- ^ Mitchell, Alex. "Libs' Right takes revenge: faithful Forsythe dumped". Sun-Herald, December 4, 2005.
- ^ Norington, Brad and Salusinszky, Imre. "Fallback option opens for Goward". The Australian, May 24, 2006.
- ^ "New Lib face in the house". Daily Telegraph, September 29, 2006.
- ^ Cronin, Danielle. "Queanbeyan businessman is new MLC". Canberra Times, September 16, 2006.
