Ian Charles Blayney (born 2 February 1962) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

politician. He was born in

Geraldton, Western Australia Geraldton (Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

. He has been a member of the

Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House in the Western Australian capital, Perth. The Legisla ...

since the 2008 state election, representing

Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

. He won the seat of Geraldton as a Liberal candidate, defeating sitting

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 ...

member

Shane Hill Shane Robin Hill (born 2 December 1965 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia) is an Australian politician. He represented the electorate of Geraldton in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from the 2001 election for the Labor Party until ...

after a redistribution made the seat notionally Liberal. He holds an Associate Diploma of Agriculture. Blayney was comfortably reelected in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, but faced a closer-than-expected contest in

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against

candidate

Lara Dalton Lara Dalton (born 23 May 1970) is an Australian politician. She is a Labor member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, representing Geraldton since the 2021 state election. Prior to entering politics, Dalton worked at the Geraldto ...

. He went into the election sitting on a seemingly insurmountable margin of 22.8 percent in a "traditional" two-party contest with Labor, but suffered a swing of 21.5 percent, paring back his margin to an extremely marginal 1.3 percent. He actually trailed Dalton by 1,300 votes on the first count, but was elected on WA National and One Nation preferences. On 24 July 2019, Blayney announced he had resigned from the Liberal Party, and applied to join the WA Nationals. The move after he lost his post as shadow agriculture minister in a reshuffle, but Blayney claimed it had "not greatly" affected his thinking. He was accepted into the National Party on 17 August 2019 by their leader,

Mia Davies Mia Jane Davies (born 3 November 1978) is an Australian politician who is the current Leader of the Opposition and leader of the National Party in Western Australia. She has been a member of the state Legislative Assembly since 2013, having pr ...

. Dalton sought a rematch at the 2021 election, and handily defeated him amid Labor's decisive victory that year.

References

1962 births Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Western Australia National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Western Australia Independent members of the Parliament of Western Australia Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Liberal-politician-stub