Glenn Edward Brookes (born 13 August 1959) 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 ...

representing East Hills from 2011 to 2019. A member of 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 ...

, he resigned to become an independent in 2016 after questions were raised about his 2015 campaign, but rejoined the party in 2017.

Early years and background

Brookes was born at Bankstown Hospital and attended East Hills Primary and High Schools. Leaving school at a young age, he built a successful large business, Sydney Signs, in a monopoly market. He now manages several companies.

Political career

In 2004, Brookes was elected to serve as a

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

Bankstown City Council The City of Bankstown was a local government area in the south-west region of Sydney, Australia, centred on the suburb of Bankstown, from 1895 to 2016. The last Mayor of the City of Bankstown Council was Clr Khal Asfour, a member of the Labor ...

and continues to hold this position. He first ran for East Hills in the 2003 NSW election, losing to incumbent

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 Alan Ashton who achieved 68.5 per cent of the

two-party preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...

vote. He ran again for East Hills at the 2007 NSW election, losing again to Ashton, on a two-party preferred margin of 64.1 per cent for Labor. Brookes was the recipient of a 3.8-point increase in support from the 2003 election. In 2011, Brookes again contested East Hills; Ashton was again his main competitor. With the election strategies implemented by his Campaign Manager, Geoffrey Grasso, Brookes defeated Ashton, with a swing of 14.3 per cent, winning the seat from Labor for the first time in history, and holding the seat with 50.6 per cent of the

two-party A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...

vote. Since the seat of East Hills was created in

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

, up until the 2011 NSW election, it had been held continuously by Labor, represented by only three members of parliament. On 21 March 2016, Brookes resigned from the Liberal Party to sit as an independent after his election campaign manager, Jim Daniels, was charged with electoral offences. He later rejoined the party.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brookes, Glenn Liberal 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 Living people 1959 births 21st-century Australian politicians