Bernard Fernand Ripoll (born 6 January 1966) is a former Australian politician. He was a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

from 1998 to 2016, representing the

Division of Oxley The Division of Oxley is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. It is currently represented by Milton Dick , the current Speaker of the House of Representatives Geography Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australi ...

, Queensland. In 2013, Ripoll was made Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Shadow Minister for Sport, on 15 September 2015 he resigned from the Shadow Cabinet position.

Early life

Ripoll was born on 6 January 1966 in

Pézenas Pézenas (; Languedocien: ''Pesenàs'') is a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Name The name "Pézenas" is derived from the older name ''Piscenae'', probably from the Latin word ''piscenis'', meanin ...

, France, the son of Suzanne (née Servera) and Andre Ripoll. His parents were ''

Pieds-Noirs The ''Pieds-Noirs'' (; ; ''Pied-Noir''), are the people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French rule from 1830 to 1962; the vast majority of whom departed for mainland France as soon as Alger ...

'' (European

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ns) of Spanish ancestry who came to France following the Algerian Revolution. Ripoll moved to Australia as a child, where he learned to speak English, and became an Australian citizen in 1974. He grew up in

Inala, Queensland Inala is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Inala had a population of 14,849 people. Geography Inala is by road south-west of the Brisbane GPO. Inala Avenue/Poinsettia Street is the main roadway east–west and S ...

. Ripoll joined the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

(RAAF) as a teenager and was an apprentice aircraft electrician from 1983 to 1984. He completed his high school leaving certificate by attending night school. He subsequently worked as an electrician from 1986 to 1990, later completing the degree of

Bachelor of Business A Bachelor of Business (BBus, BBus (Major)) is a three to four year undergraduate degree in the field of business offered by traditional and newer universities from the post-Dawkins era in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. It is similar in format ...

at the

Queensland University of Technology Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area viz. Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. The univ ...

as a marketing major. Before entering parliament, Ripoll worked as an organiser with the State Public Services Federation of Queensland (now known as the Queensland Public Sector Union) from 1995 to 1998.

Political career

At the 1998 federal election, Ripoll sought to regain Oxley for Labor. The seat had been held by

Pauline Hanson Pauline Lee Hanson (''née'' Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the founder and leader of One Nation, a right-wing populist political party. Hanson has represented Queensland in the Australian ...

, who formed One Nation after winning the normally safe Labor seat of Oxley in 1996 as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

. Prior to the election, Oxley was divided in half, with most of the old Oxley's more rural territory shifted to the new

Division of Blair The Division of Blair is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. Geography Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australia ...

. Hanson opted to contest Blair, which contained most of her former base. Former

Queensland Premier The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

Wayne Goss Wayne Keith Goss (26 February 1951 – 10 November 2014) was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996, becoming the first Labor Premier of the state in over thirty two years. Prior to entering politics, Goss was a solic ...

had already been preselected as Labor candidate, but a brain tumour forced him to retire from politics, and Ripoll was named in his place. Ripoll was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure in October 2004. On 2 March 2012, Ripoll was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, and appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business from 25 March 2013. In April 2015 Ripoll announced that he would not contest the next election, clearing the way for Milton Dick to pursue Labor party preselection. Dick was elected at the 2016 federal election.

Subsequent activities

Ripoll was a director of lobbying firm SAS Group, along with former Nationals MP

Larry Anthony Lawrence James Anthony (born 17 December 1961) is an Australian former politician. He was a National Party of Australia member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the Division of Richmond, New South Wales, from the March 1 ...

References

External links

Bernie Ripoll, House of Representatives Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ripoll, Bernie 1966 births Living people People from Pézenas Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians French emigrants to Australia People who lost French citizenship Naturalised citizens of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Oxley Royal Australian Air Force airmen Queensland University of Technology alumni 21st-century Australian politicians 20th-century Australian politicians Australian people of Spanish descent Australian people of Algerian descent