Robert Bruce Duncan (10 October 1928 – 7 May 2005) was an Australian politician. He was the member for Lismore 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 ...

from 1965 to 1988, first as a member of the Country Party and then 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 ...

. Duncan was born in Lismore to farmer Robert Duncan and his wife Mary Mustard. He was educated at public schools in the Lismore area and became a dairy farmer at Konorigan. On 21 August 1953 he married Marlene Brown, with whom he had two sons. In 1965, Duncan was preselected as one of two Country Party candidates for the marginal

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 labour ...

seat of Lismore, held by

Keith Compton Keith Clive Compton (16 May 1900 – 6 December 1977) was an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1959 to 1965, representing the electorate of Lismore. Compton was born in Maitla ...

. 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 ...

also endorsed a candidate, making the seat a three-cornered contest. In the event, Duncan easily led the non-Labor candidates and was able to defeat Compton on the other candidates' preferences. Duncan established a strong electoral record, making Lismore a safe seat in 1968 and being elected unopposed in 1971. He continued to hold the seat with large margins over the following years. In 1982, the National Country Party, as it had become, changed its name to the National Party. Duncan objected to the exclusion of the word "Country" from the party's name, and resigned. The National Party, however, did not oppose his election in 1984 and he won his seat easily as an

. Duncan retired in 1988, when the seat went back to the National Party. Duncan died in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

in 2005.

References

1928 births 2005 deaths National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Independent members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-National-politician-stub