Luke John Anthony Gosling, (born 17 September 1971) is an Australian politician and a retired

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

officer. Gosling has been the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

member for the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

seat of

Solomon Solomon (; , ),, ; ar, سُلَيْمَان, ', , ; el, Σολομών, ; la, Salomon also called Jedidiah (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Modern Hebrew, Modern: , Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yăḏīḏăyāh'', "beloved of Yahweh, Yah"), ...

in the Northern Territory since the 2016 federal election.

Background

Gosling is the eldest of eight children. He has a Bachelor of Arts in history and politics from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

. Gosling served in the

Australian Defence Force The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Forc ...

(ADF) for 13 years in the Parachute Infantry, Commandos and Defence Cooperation Programs. He served in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

Timor-Leste East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...

. Gosling worked abroad in countries such as

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

and Timor-Leste after leaving the ADF. He co-founded Life, Love and Health, a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation, an Australian charity for Timor-Leste. For his work with the NGO, he was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

in 2006 regarding relief work in the 2006 humanitarian crisis. He received the

Medal of Merit Several countries award a military or civil medal called Medal of Merit: * Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) * Medal of Merit (Denmark) * Medal of Merit of the Dominican Woman * Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (East Germany) * Medal o ...

from the President of Timor-Leste in 2009. Gosling established the Remote Area Health Corps in 2008. He has worked at

Saint Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, Congregation of the Mission, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was a Occitan people, Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poverty, poor. In 1622 Vi ...

as a volunteer after serving as the Darwin CEO of the organisation.

Political career

2013 election

Gosling ran for the Darwin-based seat of

as a

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 ...

candidate at the 2013 federal election, but was narrowly defeated by one-term Country Liberal incumbent

Natasha Griggs Natasha Louise Griggs (born 24 January 1969) is an Australian former politician and the administrator of the Australian Indian Ocean Territories from 2017 to 2022. Griggs was first elected at the 2010 federal election as a member of the Hous ...

. Gosling received a 48.6 percent

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 after gaining a 0.4-point two-party swing.

2016 election

Gosling ran for Solomon again at the 2016 federal election. A MediaReach seat-level opinion poll of 513 voters in Solomon conducted one week before the Saturday 2 July 2016 election found Gosling heavily leading Griggs 61–39 on the

vote from a large 12.4-point swing. Gosling defeated Griggs on 56 percent two-party vote after gaining a 7.4-point two-party swing. He is the second opposition member to hold Solomon. The federal election came at a bad time for the CLP government in the Territory, whose poll numbers had suffered after numerous cabinet reshuffles and leadership spills. Gosling's victory foreshadowed his party's landslide victory at the 2016 Territory election, at which Labor won the third-largest majority government in the history of the Territory–including all but one seat within Solomon's borders. Gosling made national headlines during the election campaign by using photographs from his past army service in his campaign materials. The Australian Defence Force issued a directive to retract any advertising showing him in military uniform. Gosling defended use of the photographs, stating the claimed restrictions on their use did not apply as he was "no longer a member of Defence".

2022 election

Gosling was re-elected for a third term after defeating CLP candidate Tina MacFarlane at the 2022 federal election.

Personal life

Gosling is married and has two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gosling, Luke 1971 births Living people Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Solomon Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia 21st-century Australian politicians Australian Army officers University of New South Wales alumni