Charles Blunt
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Charles William Blunt (born 19 January 1951) Australian politician and businessman, was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in economics. After working in various positions he was hired as New South Wales State Director of the National Party of Australia (NPA). In 1984 he was elected to the House of Representatives for the Division of Richmond in northern New South Wales, despite having no previous connections with the area.
Blunt was immediately promoted to the opposition front bench, serving as shadow Minister for Social Services. In 1989 he organised a leadership coup against the veteran leader of the NPA, Ian Sinclair. Blunt aimed to modernise the NPA and bring it into closer alignment with the Liberal Party, particularly on issues of economic deregulation. He was also more socially liberal than most NPA members.
Unfortunately for Blunt, neither of these things was popular with rank and file NPA members, and he found his leadership under increasing attack from traditionalists. At the same time the seat of Richmond, which had been held by the NPA and its predecessor the Country Party since 1922, was becoming more urbanised. The antiwar campaigner Helen Caldicott announced that she would oppose Blunt in his electorate at the next election.
The culmination of these trends was a swing against the NPA at the 1990 elections, at which the Hawke Labor government was re-elected. Blunt was defeated in his own seat of Richmond. Blunt had no local connections, which worked against him in a country seat. The Labor Party won the seat on Caldicott's preferences. It was only the second time an Australian federal politician had lost his own seat at an election at which he was the leader of a major political party; the first was Stanley Bruce, the then Prime Minister, who not only lost the 1929 election but lost his own seat of Flinders.
After the election, Blunt was again the focus of political controversy when it was revealed that he had rorted publicly-funded mailouts of election-related material:
| “ | Yesterday I was asked by the honourable member for Wannon a series of questions relating to postal allowances. I can confirm that Dr Hewson, as Opposition leader, spent $3000 on postage. Mr Peacock spent $5100. The former Democrats leader, Mrs Janine Haines, spent $5500. I spent $10,255. And Mr Charles Blunt, the former National Party leader, spent $278,922." | ” |
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—Bob Hawke, November 1990, [1] |
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After leaving politics Blunt went into business. He led a number of trade and investment missions to the United States and was regular speaker at international trade and investment outlook conferences. In 2003 he became National Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia. He has since also been appointed as Chairman of a variety of companies and continues to be a highly respected member of the business community in Australia. He also currently is chair of a number of publicly listed companies, including Capital Trade and Policy and Palamedia. He is divorced, lives in Sydney and has two sons.
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| Parliament of Australia | ||
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| Preceded by Doug Anthony |
Member for Richmond 1984–1990 |
Succeeded by Neville Newell |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Ian Sinclair |
Leader of the National Party of Australia 1989–1990 |
Succeeded by Tim Fischer |
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