Alby Schultz

Albert John "Alby" Schultz (born 29 May 1939), Australian politician, has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing Hume, New South Wales. He was born in Melbourne, Victoria, and was a meat processing worker before entering politics. He was a Field Officer, for the Liberal Party 1986-88 and a member of the Cootamundra Shire Council 1983-91.

Schultz was the member for Burrinjuck in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1988 to 1998, before being elected to represent Hume at the 1998 election. He was subsequently returned at the 2001, 2004 and 2007 elections. He gained national media attention in the lead up to the privatisation of Telstra claiming that he would not support the legislation but would not "cross the floor". In the end he abstained from voting on the matter.^[1]

Alby Schultz was one of the seven Liberal Party politicians who boycotted Parliament on the day that the formal apology to the Stolen Generations was made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.^[2][3]

Schultz apologised in June 2009 for a physical confrontation with one of his Liberal parliamentary colleagues in a party room meeting in Parliament House. He had been angered by a remark made by Chris Pearce, the member for Aston in Victoria, during a debate about whether the Liberal Party should run candidates against National Party MPs. Schultz reportedly responded by grabbing Pearce around the neck. He later apologised to Pearce and the entire party room for the incident.^[4]

Personal

In 2003 he lost an eye in an accident with hydrochloric acid while cleaning a swimming pool filter, and in 2004 he had a prosthetic eye fitted.^[5][6] On 29 August 2010 a story about Schultz appeared on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph in which it was claimed he had threatened two independent MPs in the Federal Parliament urging them to make a decision on which party they would support. Schultz denied the accuracy of the story.

References

External links

• Personal website