Jason Wood (politician)

Jason Peter Wood (born 24 May 1968), Australian politician, was elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the Division of La Trobe, Victoria for the Liberal Party of Australia at the 2004 federal election. He held the seat until his defeat at the 2010 federal election. He had previously stood for the Division of Holt for the Liberal party at the 2001 federal election.^[1]

Wood was educated at the Chisholm Institute, Swinburne University and RMIT University, Melbourne, and has qualifications in management, including a Masters Degree in Applied Science (Field Innovation Service Management - Counter Terrorism). He was a Senior Sergeant with the Victoria Police counter-terrorism unit before entering politics.^[2]

While a member of parliament, he was a member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment and Heritage (from 1 December 2004) and also the Joint Statutory for the Australian Crime Commission (also from 1 December 2004)^[3]

Jason Wood gained notoriety in 2008 when he mispronounced a series of words during a speech to the federal parliament on the risks associated with genetically modified organisms, culminating in the utterance of the word "orgasms", twice. Although pronunciation errors are common during parliamentary speeches, the speech was notable for a certain comic piquant and was reported by mainstream media.^[4][5]

Wood's former electorate of La Trobe contains communities located in and near the Dandenong Ranges, such as Belgrave, Sassafras and Gembrook. Wood has often campaigned on environmental issues. He supports a greenhouse emissions reduction target of 25% to 30% by 2020,^[6] and is a member of Greenpeace.^[6]

References

External links

• Official website