Robert Sercombe

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Robert Charles Grant "Bob" Sercombe (born 3 April 1949) was an Australian politician who represented the Division of Maribyrnong, Victoria for the Australian Labor Party from March 1996 until his retirement at the 2007 federal election.

He was born in Melbourne, Victoria, and was educated at the University of Melbourne. He was a public servant, social planner, and administrator before entering politics. He was an adviser to Clyde Holding, a minister in the Hawke government, 1983-88. He was a member of the Essendon City Council 1983-84.

Sercombe was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 1988-96. He was Deputy Leader of the Opposition 1993-94 and a member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry 1992-94.

In State politics, he became well known for attempting a leadership challenge on behalf of Ian Baker who attempted to topple then Leader John Brumby in 1994. Brumby asked him to leave the front-bench after the abortive bid.

In the federal Parliament, Sercombe was an Opposition Whip from 1998 until 2001. He was elected to the Opposition Shadow Ministry after the 2004 election and appointed Shadow Minister for Pacific Islands (assisting the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd). His rather limited portfolio responsibilities were slightly expanded some time later by Beazley to include Overseas Development. As Shadow Minister, despite not having a direct Ministerial opponent, Sercombe put out a series of policy announcements about expanding Australia's relationship with that region.

Within the Labor Party, Sercombe was for many years a leading member of the Labor Right in Victoria, although later became allied to the Socialist Left faction in Victoria while being a leading light of the Centre-Left caucus in Canberra.

Just prior to a local vote of ALP members, in February 2005 Sercombe announced he was withdrawing his candidacy from Labor preselection for his seat of Maribyrnong in favour of Australian Workers Union National Secretary Bill Shorten who was elected unopposed as a result. He criticised challenges to other incumbent MP's, particularly the challenge to Simon Crean.