Robert Bruce Whan (5 January 1933 – 4 October 2015) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

(ALP) and represented the

Division of Eden-Monaro The Division of Eden-Monaro is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The previous member, Mike Kelly resigned due to ill health on 30 April 2020. The seat was filled at a by-election on 4 July 2020. Geography Si ...

in the House of Representatives from 1972 to 1975. He worked in the wool industry before entering politics.

Early life

Whan was born in

Wodonga, Victoria Wodonga ( Waywurru: ''Wordonga'') is a city on the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Wodonga LGA. Its population is approximately 3 ...

. His parents moved to Melbourne where he attended East Kew Central School and Richmond Technical College. He left school at the age of 15 and went with his family to

King Island King Island, Kings Island or King's Island may refer to: Australia * King Island (Queensland) * King Island, at Wellington Point, Queensland * King Island (Tasmania) ** King Island Council, the local government area that contains the Tasmanian is ...

, where he worked in the dairy industry. Whan later moved to

Albury, New South Wales Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the C ...

, where he worked in a woolstore and gained a

wool classing Wool classing is the production of uniform, predictable, low-risk lines of wool, carried out by examining the characteristics of the wool in its raw state and classing (grading) it accordingly. Wool classing is done by a wool classer. Basis for ...

certificate. He later attained a degree in wool technology from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

and completed postgraduate studies at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

in England. He worked as a public servant before entering politics, serving as the officer-in-charge of the wool marketing section of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics.

Politics

Whan was elected to federal parliament at the 1972 federal election, as the Labor candidate in the

. He won the seat by a margin of 503 votes, and retained it at the 1974 election by a margin of 146 votes, making it one of the most marginal seats in the country. He lost his seat in Labor's landslide defeat at the 1975 election, although the relatively small swing against him was seen as evidence of his personal following. Whan won Labor preselection as the Labor candidate in the Division of Canberra at the 1977 election, but following a series of challenges the initial ballot was overturned and he was replaced by Henry Lawrence, who lost to the incumbent Liberal MP John Haslem. He later served as chief of staff to

Richard Amery Richard Sanderson Amery (born 31 March 1951) is an Australian former politician. He was a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1983 to 2015, representing the electorates of Riverstone (1983-1991) and Mount Druit ...

Later life

After his defeat Whan served as head of the New South Wales Milk Board and executive director of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid. He was also a founder of Jobless Action, a Canberra-based organisation.

Personal life

Whan died of cardiac arrest on 4 October 2015 at the age of 82. His son,

Steve Whan Steven James Robert Whan (born 11 February 1964) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2011 to 2015. Whan represented the electoral district of Monaro in the New South Wales Legislati ...

has been the member for Monaro in the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

since 2023, having previously been the member from 2003 to 2011 and a served in the Legislative Council from 2011 to 2015. Prior to entering the New South Wales Parliament, Steve was the unsuccessful candidate for his father's old federal seat of Eden-Monaro in the 1998 and 2001 elections but was unsuccessful on both those occasions.http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/2001/2001repsnsw.txt

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whan, Bob 1933 births 2015 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Eden-Monaro Members of the Order of Australia University of New South Wales alumni Alumni of the University of Leeds People from Wodonga 20th-century Australian politicians Australian agriculturalists