Robert Leslie Brown

Robert Leslie Brown (born c. 1951) is an Australian politician. He has been a Shooters and Fishers Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 2006, when he filled a casual vacancy sparked by the retirement of long-time party leader John Tingle.

Brown, formerly the party's chairman, is one of five Shooters and Fishers Party members currently represented in an Australian parliament.

Background and early years

Brown was born into a working-class family in the Sydney suburb of Leichhardt. He was raised and attended school in the Ryde district, where he took an interest in hunting. He left school in 1966 at the age of 15 to take an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner at the Cockatoo Island Dockyard, rising to become plant superintendent. Brown left the dockyard in 1978 to take up a management position with a subsidiary of Lend Lease, and remained with the group when it was sold to James Hardie Industries in 1985. He was also involved in a partnership operating a game fishing charter business in Fiji from the 1970s until 1982. He is married with two sons.^[1]

Political career

Shooters Party

Having taken an interest in hunting from an early age, Brown joined the Shooters Party soon after its creation. He was elected to the state committee in 1994, and served in that role until his election as party chairman in 2005.^[1] Brown also became involved with a number of shooting lobby groups, serving as state president of the Australian Deer Association from 1995 to 1998 and becoming a life member of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia.^[2]

When the Shooters Party held the balance of power in the Legislative Council of New South Wales, Brown exerted pressure for the passage of the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002,^[3] which saw the establishment of the Game Council New South Wales and a reduction in restrictions upon hunting of feral animals. However, a government review of the governance of the Game Council, completed in 2013 found that:^[4]

"more than a decade after it was established the Game Council has no overarching governance framework; lacks a strategic planning framework; lacks some of the skills, tools and resources to ensure effective compliance with its regulatory framework; has no internal regulatory compliance program, has no approved enterprise-wide risk management framework and has an inadequate policy framework".

— Steve Dunn, Review into the governance of the Game Council.

The Game Council was abolished on 4 July 2013.

New South Wales parliament

Brown's role as Chairman of the Shooters Party meant that he emerged as a leading contender to enter parliament when long-serving MLC and party leader John Tingle announced his intention to retire in late 2005. Brown was duly confirmed by the party's state conference, and, when Tingle formally resigned in May 2006, Brown was appointed to the resulting casual vacancy in the Legislative Council.^[2]

References