Christopher Gulaptis is an Australian politician who was a member of 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 ...

. He represented

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a l ...

for The Nationals from the 2011 by-election until his retirement in March 2023.

Background and early career

Of Macedonian background, Gulaptis was born in

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, and graduated with a degree in applied science from the

Western Australian Institute of Technology Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

(now Curtin University) and commenced practice as a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

. He moved to Clarence Valley in New South Wales in 1980, and was a councillor on Maclean Shire Council, where he also served as mayor. His service as a councillor ceased when all five local government councils in the Clarence Valley were amalgamated into one council, the

Clarence Valley Council Clarence Valley Council is a local government area in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. The council services an area of and draws its name from the Clarence River, which flows through most of the council area. The are ...

. Gulaptis successfully stood at the first Clarence Valley local government election in 2005 and served as one of nine councillors. He unsuccessfully stood for mayor of the new council in March and September 2005 and September 2006 and resigned as a councillor in 2008.

Parliamentary career

Gulaptis contested the seat of

Page Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...

at the

2007 federal election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...

. Although capturing the majority of primary votes, he lost to the

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 ...

candidate,

Janelle Saffin Janelle Anne Saffin (born 1 November 1954) is an Australian Labor Party politician. She has been the Member for Lismore in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly since 23 March 2019. She was the Member for Page in the Australian House of Repr ...

, after distribution of preferences. Gulaptis retained his Lower Clarence residence but took employment in Queensland in the interim, and returned to the Clarence Valley when he was pre-selected as Nationals candidate in the Clarence by-election. Following the

Australian greyhound racing live baiting scandal The Australian greyhound racing live baiting scandal is a series of events that occurred in at least three Australian states where live baiting of racing greyhounds was exposed on ABC TV and in ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. On 16 February 2015 ...

and the decision by the Baird government to ban greyhound racing NSW from 1 July 2017, legislation was introduced into the NSW Legislative Assembly and Gulaptis

crossed the floor Crossed may refer to: * ''Crossed'' (comics), a 2008 comic book series by Garth Ennis * ''Crossed'' (novel), a 2010 young adult novel by Ally Condie * "Crossed" (''The Walking Dead''), an episode of the television series ''The Walking Dead'' S ...

to vote against the government. At the time of the vote Gulaptis was the Parliamentary Secretary for the North Coast; however, the following day he was informed that was no longer a parliamentary secretary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gulaptis, Christopher Year of birth missing (living people) National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Living people Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Politicians from Perth, Western Australia Curtin University alumni Australian people of Greek descent 21st-century Australian politicians