Graeme Lindsay Sturges (born 31 May 1955) is an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the

Tasmanian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart. The Assembly has 25 m ...

from 2002 to 2010 and 2011 to 2014, representing the Hobart-based electorate of Denison. He was elected twice before losing his seat in 2010, regained it in a countback following the resignation of

David Bartlett David John Bartlett (born 19 January 1968) is an Australian former politician in the state of Tasmania, serving as the 43rd Premier of Tasmania from May 2008 until January 2011. He was a Labor Party member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly s ...

in 2011, and retired at the 2014 election. He was the state Minister for Infrastructure from 2008 until 2010.

Early life

Sturges was born in Hobart. Prior to entering Parliament, he worked as the State Secretary for the Tasmanian branch of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union.

Political career

Sturges entered Parliament when he was elected to the seat of Denison at the 2002 state election. Sturges retained his political seat in the 2006 state election and continued his role as

Government Whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology ...

whilst also remaining involved in community groups such as the RSPCA, Disabled Riders Association, Pensioners Union, French Car Club of Tasmania and the boxing community. Sturges was appointed the Minister for Infrastructure in

's cabinet following the resignation of the Premier,

Paul Lennon Paul Anthony Lennon (born 8 October 1955) is a Labor Party politician. He was Premier of Tasmania from 21 March 2004 until his resignation on 26 May 2008. He was member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly for the seat of Franklin from 1990 unt ...

. During his time as Minister, Sturges attracted vigorous comment as to his handling of both rail infrastructure and ports as services either failed or were proven to have significant deterioration due to inactivity over many years. The absence of available Federal stimulus funding to alleviate these issues was also commented upon with Sturges admitting that the government had failed to apply for financial support. During his time in parliament, Sturges was reported to have made several "gaffes". In March 2009, he was accused of misusing his position by raising an incident between his son and a bus driver with the management of

Metro Tasmania Metro Tasmania, commonly called Metro, a Tasmanian Government business enterprise, is the largest bus operator in the state of Tasmania, Australia, with operations in three of the four largest urban centres of Hobart, , and . Urban services in ...

. In another widely reported incident, Sturges reportedly shouted at a

TT-Line TT-Line GmbH is a shipping company based in Lübeck, Germany, which has been providing ferry service between Travemünde in Schleswig-Holstein and Trelleborg in southern Sweden since 1962. Since 1992, it has also operated a service from Rostock ...

security guard, stating "Don't you know who I am? I'll have your job." Sturges apologised to the guard, but later denied he had made the statements attributed to him, and said that his apology had been forced by the Premier's media advisors. Sturges subsequently lost his seat in the Tasmanian state election in March 2010 gaining only 1,185 primary votes. He was then appointed Chairman of the Board of TasBuild. In May 2011, former Premier David Bartlett resigned from parliament, triggering a "countback" (or recount of 2010 votes) for Denison. Of Labor's unsuccessful candidates at that election, Lisa Singh had been elected to the Australian Senate, leaving Sturges and

Madeleine Ogilvie Madeleine Ruth Ogilvie (born 25 January 1969) is an Australian lawyer and politician. She is a Liberal Party member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly representing the Division of Clark and is the Minister for Small Business, Advanced Manufactur ...

as the eligible Labor candidates. The recount took place on 26 May, and Sturges was re-elected with 5,362 votes to Ogilvie's 4,197.Denison recount result
, Tasmanian Electoral Commission, 26 May 2011.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturges, Graeme 1955 births Living people Members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Tasmania 21st-century Australian politicians