Ron Edwards (Australian politician)

Ronald Frederick "Ron" Edwards (born 2 July 1945) is a retired Australian politician. Born in Perth, Western Australia, he was educated at the University of Western Australia and the University of Sydney, after which he became a lecturer in economics and industrial relations. In 1983, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Labor member for Stirling, defeating the sitting member, Liberal minister Ian Viner. Edwards held Stirling until his defeat by Liberal candidate Eoin Cameron in 1993.^[1]

Edwards was Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives from 29 August 1989 to 8 February 1993; he was in the Chair on 15 September 1992, when then-Prime Minister Paul Keating made his infamous "I wanna do you slowly" remark to then-Leader of the Opposition John Hewson.

Just prior to the calling of the 1993 federal election, Speaker Leo McLeay resigned. It had been expected that if the election had not been called so soon after McLeay's resignation as Speaker or if Edwards had held his seat in the election upon the re-election of the Keating Government, Edwards would have been elected Speaker.

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