Wilson Tuckey
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Charles Wilson Tuckey (born 10 July 1935), Australian politician, has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1980, representing the Division of O'Connor, Western Australia. He was born in Perth, Western Australia, and was a businessman and hotelier before entering politics.
Tuckey was a Town Councillor in Carnarvon, Western Australia, 1964-65 and a member of Carnarvon Shire Council 1969-70, 1971-73 and 1977-79. He was Shire President 1965-69.
In the federal Parliament he was a member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry 1984-89 and 93-96. He was Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House 1988-89 and 1993-94. He was Minister for Forestry and Conservation and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister 1998-2001 and Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government 2002-2003.
Tuckey is one of the most colourful and controversial figures in Australian federal politics. In 1967, while a publican in Carnarvon, he was convicted of assault after striking an Aboriginal man with a length of steel cable. It was alleged that the man was being pinned to the ground at the time [1]. He has had the nickname "Ironbar" ever since. Tuckey's criminal conviction for this assault did not hinder his political ambitions. It is believed that Tuckey is the first federal Minister to have carried the stigma of having a criminal conviction for a violent assault.
Although many of his constituents are Aboriginal Australians, Tuckey has long maintained his opposition to Aboriginal political causes such as land rights and native title. He has been criticised for not doing enough for Aboriginal people and of having become wealthy at their expense when he ran his hotel in Carnarvon prior to becoming a politician. Nevertheless, Tuckey has won back-to-back elections for many years and remains very popular among his non-indigenous constituents.
In 1986 Tuckey taunted the then Labor Treasurer, Paul Keating, in Parliament about a former girlfriend called "Kristine," leading Keating to call him "a piece of criminal garbage." In one notorious exchange, Tuckey told Keating: "You are an idiot, you are a hopeless nong", to which Keating replied: "Shut up! Sit down and shut up, you pig... Why do you not shut up, you clown?... This man has a criminal intellect... this clown continues to interject in perpetuity."
In 1989 Tuckey was one of the leaders of the plot to depose the then Liberal leader, John Howard, and replace him with Andrew Peacock. After the success of the plot, Tuckey boasted about it on television. Despite this, his hard-line conservatism has made him a favourite of Howard's since he returned to the leadership in 1995.
As Minister for Forestry Tuckey angered conservation groups through his support for the forestry industry. In 2002 he blamed the environmentalist movement for Australia's severe bushfire problem, saying that their opposition to controlled burning in national parks increased the risk of fires.
Tuckey's demise as a minister came in August 2003 when it was revealed that he had written to Patrick Conlon, who was Police Minister in South Australia, on ministerial letterhead, asking Conlon to "review" his son's conviction on a traffic charge. Prime Minister Howard said that Tuckey's actions were foolish but refused to dismiss him. Tuckey resigned as a minister shortly afterwards, and is now a backbencher.
In 2005 when the Australian parliament voted to pass a motion asking Singaporean authorities that Van Tuong Nguyen not be executed for drug smuggling, Wilson Tuckey was the only member of parliament not to support it.
Wilson Tuckey is often quoted in the media as supporting free markets and less government intervention in the economy, he also also well known for criticising the National Party on a number of issues. He has been the most outspoken critic of AWB in Federal Parliament and has led the push for it to be stripped of its export monopoly for wheat. Tuckey labelled National Party politicans who continue to support the single desk system as "drongos". He also labelled National Party senator Barnaby Joyce a "lightweight" for arguing in favour of foreign ownership restrictions to be placed upon Medibank Private after privatisation.
In August 2006, Tuckey had a public argument with Labor leader Kim Beazley over new immigration laws, ending with Tuckey calling Beazley a "fat so and so".
Tuckey turned 71 in July 2006 and is the oldest member of the House.
[edit] References
- Heckler from Hell lives to torment another day, The Age, August 23, 2003.
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tuckey, Charles Wilson |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Australian politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 10 July 1935 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Perth, Western Australia, Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | living |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
