Patrick John McNamara (born Melbourne, 11 August 1949) is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n politician who was a member of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

, representing

Benalla Benalla is a small city located on the Broken River gateway to the High Country north-eastern region of Victoria, Australia, about north east of the state capital Melbourne. At the the population was 10,822. It is the administrative cent ...

for the National Party from 1982 to 2000. From 1988 to 1999, he was leader of the National Party in Victoria and was

Deputy Premier of Victoria The deputy premier of Victoria is the second-most senior officer in the Government of Victoria. The deputy premier position was created in May 1932, with Robert Menzies being the first person to hold the position. The deputy premier is appointe ...

under Jeff Kennett from 1992 to 1999. He held several ministerial positions in the Kennett government, including Minister for Agriculture and Resources, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Corrections. During his tenure as Deputy Premier, Kennett's Liberals actually held a majority in their own right. Although Kennett did not need the support of McNamara's Nationals, the coalition was retained. Following the defeat of the Liberal-National

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

at the 1999 Victorian election, McNamara resigned the party leadership. A year later, he resigned from parliament, triggering a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

which resulted in the Nationals losing the seat to the Labor Party.McLeod, Shane
Nationals in shock after Benalla
''The World Today'' (ABC Local Radio), 15 May 2000.

References

1949 births Living people Delegates to the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998 20th-century Australian politicians Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Victoria Deputy Premiers of Victoria RMIT University alumni People educated at Xavier College Politicians from Melbourne Victorian Ministers for Agriculture {{Australia-National-politician-stub