Andrew Thomson (Australian politician)

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Andrew Peter Thomson (born 7 January 1961), Australian politician, is a former Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the Division of Wentworth in New South Wales.

Thomson is the son of Australian golfer Peter Thomson, and worked as a solicitor, investment banker and golf course designer before entering politics.^[1] He entered parliament in February 1994 in a by-election for Wentworth after Dr John Hewson vacated the seat when he retired from politics after being defeated in a leadership ballot by Alexander Downer.

When the Coalition took government at the 1996 election, Thomson was made Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. On 6 October 1997 he became Minister for Sport and Tourism, although he was replaced by Jackie Kelly a year later.

Thomson lost pre-selection for Wentworth in 2001, and caused a controversy when he embarked on a study tour in the United States several months before his parliamentary term ended, apparently enrolling in post-graduate law studies at Georgetown University. After considerable political fallout over the incident, Thomson declared that he would return to Australia to serve out his term until the election, and that that he would pay for the trip himself due to the controversy. He also stated that the trip was related to his work on the government's treaties committee, although the head of the committee, De-Anne Kelly, was unaware of Thomson's trip and its purpose.^[2]

[edit] References

Political offices
Preceded by John Faulkner (Sport) Michael Lee (Tourism)	Minister for Sport and Tourism 1997–1998	Succeeded by Jackie Kelly
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by John Hewson	Member for Wentworth 1995–2001	Succeeded by Peter King

Persondata
NAME	Thomson, Andrew Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Australian politician
DATE OF BIRTH	7 January 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH	Living
PLACE OF DEATH