User:Rebecca/Drafts/Terry Mulder
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Terence Wynne (Terry) Mulder (born August 16, 1952) is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 1999, representing the Colac-based electorate of Polwarth. He currently serves as the state Shadow Minister for Transport and Shadow Minister for Ports.
Mulder was born and raised in a housing commission home in Colac. He attended local primary schools before attending Trinity College, but left school at fifteen to work delivering telegrams for the Post Master General's Department. He subsequently worked as a postal clerk at the department's training centre in Melbourne, but in 1978 founded his own cleaning business, which he owned and operated until his election to parliament in 1999. He also developed his own business consultancy, which he operated from 1994 to 1999.
Mulder joined the Liberal Party in 1992, and quickly became an active member of his local branch, serving as its vice-president from 1993 to 1995 and president from 1995 to 1999. He subsequently contested and won Liberal preselection to contest the safe seat of Polwarth upon the resignation of long-serving member Ian Smith at the 1999 state election. He was ultimately elected to the safe Liberal seat with a small swing against, despite a challenge from renowed Geelong footballer Paul Couch, who ran against him as a National Party candidate.
- backbench paragraph The parliamentary Environment and Natural Resources Committee - Ovine Johne's Disease - advocating concerns with bill to force farmers to register dams - pushed for more regional development funding to go to rural areas
- August 2002 - publicly supported Doyle in his challenge to Napthine - rewarded with shadow minister for water resources - fate of the state's water system - whether they would buy water from irrigators, and the fate of storages like Lake Mokoan - Sunday Herald Sun gives him 4/10 saying he was yet to make his mark (had little chance to make a name for himself before the election - supported planned creation of the Victorian Water Trust to improve channels and pipelines and such - Herald Sun, however - TERRY MULDER, Water Resources: Thrust into a key election issue, Mr Mulder has played an integral role in regional Victoria. Will become key portfolio over the next decade. - comfortably re-elected in 2002 with swing much smaller than state average; became one of only two Liberal MPs (Doyle being the other) to hold seat by margin of more than 10% - selected to perform post-election view along with Fahey, Crosby and Lorraine Elliott - appointed Shadow Minister for Transport after the election
- runaway train incident in Feb 2003, calling for inquiry and then successfully its recommendations to be made public - claims of speed camera revenue raising due to reduced tolerance and massive increases in fines, as well as country revenue not being returned to country areas and concerns over accuracy - pushed for a strong police presence at train stations instead of CCTV to improve safety; continually publicising statistics and highlighting the widely broken panic buttons on station platforms - pushed for the return of the historic W-Class trams - March 03 - votes against bill allowing stem-cell research and banning human cloning in conscience vote - maintenance of regional rail lines and repeated delays on planned reopening of Mildura and Leongatha lines, as well as the timetables for the Ararat line - maintenance of suburban trains and the rolling out of new ones - delays on the Craigieburn line - clash over the Scoresby tollway - widespread cancelled and delayed services - Regional Fast Rail Project; both its costs and delays - pushed for more inspectors to combat fare evasion - closer to home, fate of Princes Highway - fare hikes - Marshall station - Dec 2003 - one of the Assembly's quieter ministers and shadow ministers, having only spoken 54 times in the year
- called for statewide livestock police up to 17 Dec 2004
Mulder faced an initial test when renowed footballer Paul Couch ran against
Mulder was a popular backbencher for most of his first term, and was subsequently promoted to the ministry in a reshuffle ahead of the 2002 election, serving as Shadow Minister for Water Resources. He was easily re-elected at the election, despite a statewide routing of the Liberal Party and a challenge from renowned footballer Paul Couch, who ran in Polwarth as a National Party candidate. The defeat of several shadow ministers opened up a number of vacancies in the shadow cabinet after the election, and Mulder was promoted to the position of Shadow Minister for Transport.
As Shadow Minister for Transport, Mulder became one of the highest-profile members of the opposition, leading attacks on cost blowouts over the Regional Fast Rail Project and the rebuilding of Spencer Street Station, the badly delayed Craigieburn railway extension and the controversial siting of the Marshall railway station. With the party continuing to generally struggle, however, Mulder began to be seen as a potential replacement for leader Robert Doyle.
Mulder was seen as an outside chance to become leader throughout 2005 and early 2006, but he suddenly emerged as the favourite to take the position when Doyle stepped down and endorsed him on May 4, 2006. Mulder has expressed interest in succeeding Doyle, and the withdrawal of Doyle's key rival, Ted Baillieu, has removed one of the major obstacles to his accession. Two other potential candidates, deputy leader Louise Asher and former Premier Jeff Kennett are reportedly considering their options, and a leadership vote will be held to formally determine Doyle's replacement in the coming days.
