Anthony James Fels (born 19 November 1964) is a former Australian member of parliament and

perennial candidate A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates' existence lies in the fact that in some countries, there are no laws that limit a number of times a person can ...

for public office. He was a member of the

Western Australian Legislative Council The Western Australian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia, a state of Australia. It is regarded as a house of review for legislation passed by the Legislative Assembly, the lower house. The two Houses ...

representing the Agricultural Region from 2005 to 2009, representing the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

(2005–2008) and later the

Family First Party The Family First Party was a conservative political party in Australia which existed from 2002 to 2017. It was founded in South Australia where it enjoyed its greatest electoral support. Since the demise of the Australian Conservatives into wh ...

(2008–2009).

Early life

Fels was born on 19 November 1964 in

Esperance, Western Australia Esperance is a town in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, on the Southern Ocean coastline approximately east-southeast of the state capital, Perth. The urban population of Esperance was 12,145 at June 2018. Its major ind ...

. He is the son of Pauline () and Francis Fels. Fels grew up on the family farm in Esperance, attending Castletown Primary School and Esperance Senior High School. After leaving university he started a kebab shop in Cottesloe. He later worked for the Primary Industry Bank of Australia from 1989 to 1994 and was active in various business ventures including PKB Watering Supplies, Rowlands Stockfeeds and Liquid Engineering.

Parliamentary career

Fels joined the Liberal Party in the 1980s. He was an unsuccessful

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presele ...

candidate for the

Roe Roe ( ) or hard roe is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooked in ...

prior to the

1989 Western Australian state election Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 4 February 1989 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council. The Labor government, led by Premier Peter Dowding, won a third term in ...

. He was the Liberal candidate in Roe at the 2001 election but was defeated by the incumbent

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

Ross Ainsworth Ross Andrew Ainsworth (born 25 September 1947) is an Australian politician. He was a National Party of Western Australia member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1989 to 2005, representing the electorate of Roe. Ainsworth was b ...

. At the 2005 state election, Fels was elected to the Legislative Council representing the Agricultural Region for the Liberal Party. In 2007, he was found to be in contempt of Parliament by a select committee report for giving false answers to a parliamentary inquiry. Despite attempts from the Liberal Party to remove Fels, he resigned from the Liberal Party in August 2008, and attempted to form his own party called People Against Daylight Saving. He later joined Family First. He was leader of WA Family First before they merged with the

Australian Conservatives The Australian Conservatives was formed in July 2016 as a conservative political activist group in Australia and as a political party in February 2017. It was led by Cory Bernardi, who had been elected to the Senate for the Liberal Party, b ...

Later candidacies

Fels was an independent candidate for the Senate at the 2010 federal election and for the state Legislative Council at the 2013 election, a

Katter's Australian Party Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is an agrarian political party in Australia. It was founded by Bob Katter, an independent and former Nationals MP for the seat of Kennedy, with a registration application lodged to the Australian Electoral C ...

candidate for the Senate at the 2013 federal election, and a Mutual Party candidate at the 2014 special Senate election. , Fels was a member of One Nation. At one stage it was reported that he had been preselected as a One Nation candidate at the 2017 state election, but the party later said that he had not yet been endorsed. Fels was a nominated candidate representing the Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) in the 2017 Bennelong by-election. He came last of 12 candidates with a primary vote of less than 0.2 percent. He was a candidate for Clive Palmer's

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...

at the

2019 Australian federal election The 2019 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 18 May 2019 to elect members of the 46th Parliament of Australia. The election had been called following the dissolution of the 45th Parliament as elected at the 2016 double dissolut ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fels, Anthony 1964 births Living people Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Western Australia Independent members of the Parliament of Western Australia Family First Party politicians Katter's Australian Party politicians People from Esperance, Western Australia 21st-century Australian politicians