Robert John Pyne (born 23 April 1967) is an Australian politician, currently serving as a

Cairns Region The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. ...

councillor as a member of the Socialist Alliance. He was a member of the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembl ...

from January 2015 until November 2017, representing the electorate of

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

. Pyne was elected for 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 ...

, but resigned to sit as an independent in March 2016; he then lost his seat to a Labor candidate at the 2017 election. Pyne was formerly a two-term councillor for the

Cairns Regional Council The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. ...

. Pyne is the first

quadriplegic Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of motor and/or sensory function in the cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weakness or paralysis leading to partial or t ...

member of any parliament of Australia.The Cairns Sun, 4 Feb 2015, ''Pyne makes history'', by Roz Pulley, p. 1

Early life

Pyne was born in

Gordonvale Gordonvale is a rural sugar-growing town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality situated on the southern side of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Gordonvale had a populati ...

, the son of former Cairns mayor

Tom Pyne Thomas Alfred Pyne (31 January 1935 – 30 October 2011) was an Australian politician. He was the shire chairman of the Shire of Mulgrave from 1979 to 1995, and following the amalgamation of Mulgrave with the City of Cairns, was Mayor of Ca ...

, and raised in the suburb of

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

. He had a

spinal cord injury A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cor ...

in December 1991 through breaking his neck diving into shallow water when he was 23 years old, which resulted in him becoming quadriplegic. He spent nine months recovering in the Princess Alexandra Hospital's Spinal Unit in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

before going on to gain a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

with Honours in History and Politics from

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairn ...

in 1999 and a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degree from

Queensland University of Technology Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area viz. Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. The univ ...

in 2002. In 1997, he served as President of the James Cook University Student Association.

Career

Before his accident, Rob worked for the Public Trustee of Queensland. After attaining his degrees he worked as Regional Disability Liaison Officer at James Cook University Cairns before becoming a politician. He first ran in 2008 as Division 3 councillor in the Cairns Regional Council elections, beating the former Deputy Mayor Terry James He inspected the Cairns Regional Council head office prior to taking up his role to ensure it was wheelchair accessible. He was re-elected in 2012. Division 3 includes the suburbs of Bayview Heights, Lamb Range, Mount Sheridan, White Rock and Woree. In March 2014 a Local Government formal complaint was filed against him for breaching Cairns Regional Council's media policy rules. In September 2013, he announced that he would contest Australian Labor Party preselection for the 2015 state election in the seat of

, and in April 2014 he was nominated as the Labor candidate. He won the election in January 2015, defeating sitting Liberal National Party MP

Gavin King Gavin Ryan King (born 17 March 1979) is an Australian journalist, founder of news site ''TropicNow'' and author. He was also previously a politician, serving as a Liberal National Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 20 ...

. In March 2015, Queensland's Parliament building underwent renovations to accommodate its first quadriplegic member of parliament, including removing two seats and desks in the chamber to allow Pyne wheelchair access. In January 2016, Pyne resigned from the Labor Party's

left faction The Left Faction ( he, סיעת שמאל, ''Siat Smol'') was a short-lived political party in Israel. History The Left Faction was formed on 20 February 1952 (during the second Knesset) as a breakaway from Mapam in the aftermath of the Prague T ...

. On 7 March 2016, after being publicly critical of a number of government decisions, Pyne resigned from the Labor Party, saying that he was "no longer prepared to be told how to vote by someone from Brisbane". He moved to the

crossbench A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

to sit as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

member. However, he stated he would continue to back Labor on

confidence and supply In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house. A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of parl ...

matters. On 5 May 2016, Pyne submitted a private members bill to the Queensland Parliament to decriminalise abortion in Queensland. In February 2017, he withdrew the bill after it became apparent it would not get sufficient support in its present form in Parliament. The issue of abortion was referred to the Queensland Law Reform Commission to consider a new framework for legislation in relation to the termination of pregnancy. On 19 June 2017, the

Queensland Attorney-General The Attorney-General of Queensland is a ministry of the Government of Queensland with responsibility for the state's legal and justice system. The current Attorney-General of Queensland is Shannon Fentiman. List of attorneys-general of Queens ...

Yvettte D'Ath officially issued the Queensland Law Reform Commission with the terms of reference for a review and investigation into modernising Queensland's laws in relation to the termination of pregnancy. In 2020, Pyne joined the Socialist Alliance party.

Personal life

His father

was an Australian politician from 1961 until 2000. He was first elected to Mulgrave Shire Council in 1961 and served as deputy-chairman of Mulgrave Shire in 1976, chairman in 1979, 1982, 1983, 1988 and 1991 and elected Mayor of

City Council in 1995. He died in October 2011. Rob Pyne lives in the Cairns suburb of Mount Sheridan. His wife Jenny died suddenly following a fall on 30th July 2022. He has a daughter Katie.

References

External links

*
Interview Channel 7 news
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyne, Rob 1967 births Living people People with paraplegia Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Australian politicians with disabilities Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland Independent members of the Parliament of Queensland Queensland local councillors 21st-century Australian politicians