Marinus Theodoor "Rene" Hidding (born 5 February 1953) is an Australian politician. He was a

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 ...

member for the

Division of Lyons The Division of Lyons is an Australian electoral division in Tasmania. Geography Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian ...

in 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 1996 until his resignation in 2019. From 2002 until 2006 he was also leader of the Liberal Party and

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

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Upbringing and early career

Hidding immigrated to Tasmania from the

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in his youth. He was educated in Launceston at Riverside High School and Launceston Matriculation College where he gained an Associate Diploma Business (Real Estate). He was a self-employed businessman (his companies included Hidding Trading Pty Ltd, Hiddings Mitre 10, Hiddings Building Services, Span Truss Systems and Hiddings Joinery) before entering politics, when he sold his business to

Gunns Limited Gunns Limited was a major forestry enterprise located in Tasmania, Australia. It had operations in forest management, woodchipping, sawmilling and veneer production. The company was placed into liquidation in March 2013. History Founded in 1 ...

Political career

Hidding was an Alderman on the

Launceston City Council Launceston City Council (or City of Launceston) is a Local government in Australia, local government body in Tasmania, located in the city and surrounds of Launceston, Tasmania, Launceston in the north of the state. The Launceston local gov ...

from 1985 to 1992. He was an unsuccessful Liberal candidate 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

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

in 1993. In 1996, Hidding was elected to the

for the multi-member seat of

Lyons Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...

. Between 1996 and 1998 Hidding held junior positions in the government of

Tony Rundle Anthony Maxwell Rundle AO (born 5 March 1939 in Scottsdale, Tasmania) was the Premier of the Australian State of Tasmania from 18 March 1996 to 14 September 1998. He succeeded Ray Groom and was succeeded himself by Jim Bacon. He is a Liberal ...

, including Secretary to Cabinet, Deputy Chairman of Committees and a member of the Cabinet Budget Committee. After the Liberals lost office, Hidding was elected to the Opposition front bench as Deputy Opposition Leader in 1999, and in August 2002 he was elected Leader of the Opposition. He was also Shadow Minister for Tourism, Parks and Heritage and Shadow Minister for Resources and Energy. At the 18 March 2006 state election, Hidding failed to defeat the incumbent Labor Party government led by

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 ...

. Despite an increase in the Liberal Party's primary vote, the Opposition failed to make any gains in terms of seats. On election night, Hidding declined to speculate on whether he would continue as Opposition Leader. Twelve days later, on 30 March, the day that final election results were known,

Will Hodgman William Edward Felix Hodgman (born 20 April 1969) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who has been the High Commissioner of Australia to Singapore since February 2021. He was the 45th Premier of Tasmania and a member for the Divisio ...

was unanimously elected by the party as its new leader. On 4 May 2018, following the election of the Liberal Government, Hidding was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Premier Will Hodgman. Hidding resigned from parliament on 25 February 2019, following allegations of historic sexual abuse against a minor, published in ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

''. Hidding denied the allegations and said he would confront them as a private citizen. In September 2019, the police announced that Hidding would not be charged over the allegations, with the Director of Public Prosecutions determining that "given the constraints posed by the passage of time and the resulting impact on the evidence available, there was no reasonable prospect of conviction".

Personal life

Rene Hidding and his wife, Shirley, have four adult children, and several grandchildren.

References

External links

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State Liberals Left Out in the Cold
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hidding, Rene 1953 births Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Tasmania Members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly Dutch emigrants to Australia Leaders of the Opposition in Tasmania 21st-century Australian politicians People from Hengelo