Robert Dean

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For other persons named Robert Dean, see Robert Dean (disambiguation).

Robert Logan Dean (born 31 October 1952) Australian politician is former member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

Before entering politics, Dean worked as a lawyer, having obtained a Doctor of Laws from the University of Melbourne. In 1992 Dean, a long time Liberal Party of Australia activist obtained preselection for the marginal Australian Labor Party seat of Berwick and in the wake of the 1992 Kennett landslide he easily defeated former Treasurer Robert Jolly.

After the re-election of the Kennett government in 1996 Dean was promoted to the position of Parliamentary Secretary for Justice which he held until the Liberals lost government at the 1999 election. Despite being associated with the forces opposed to Denis Napthine's leadership, Dean was promoted to shadow cabinet after the election serving as shadow Attorney-General and shadow minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

In 2001 a redistribution carried out by the Victorian Electoral Commission abolished his seat of Berwick as well as the neighbouring seat of Pakenham held by former Deputy Leader Robert Maclellan replacing them with the seat of Gembrook. Dean narrowly won a bitter preselection for the new seat against Maclellan.

In October 2002 Robert Doyle launched a successful coup against Napthine's leadership. An ally of Doyle, Dean was promoted to the key position of shadow Treasurer. However, the following month it emerged that Dean was not actually enrolled to vote (and therefore ineligible to stand in the election), having failed to update his address after he moved out of his residence in Berwick after his preselection victory for Gembrook. The incident derailed the Liberal campaign, with Treasurer John Brumby exclaiming how could the Liberals manage the economy if its own shadow Treasurer could not manage his own affairs. Robert Doyle later spoke of how the issue cost the significant momentum in the campaign.[1] Dean, legally unable to stand as candidate, was forced to retire from politics.

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