Russell John Northe (born 6 February 1966) is a former Australian politician and a former 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 ...

.Parliament of Victoria Parliamentary Handbook
/ref> Prior to winning preselection by The Nationals for the seat of

Morwell Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne. Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the . It is both the seat of local governme ...

, he was a local

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er. He resigned from The Nationals in August 2017, and served the rest of his time in office as an independent member of parliament. Following Northe's retirement at the 2022 state election,

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

member

Martin Cameron Martin Bruce Cameron (born 24 August 1935) is an Australian politician. He was a Liberal Party of Australia member of the Australian Senate from May to October 1969. He was later a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1971 ...

won Northe's previous seat of Morwell.

Early life and education

Northe was born in

Traralgon Traralgon ( ) is a town located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia and the most populous city of the City of Latrobe. The urban population of Traralgon at the was 26,907. It is the largest and fastes ...

, Victoria and attended Traralgon High School, completing Year 11 in 1982. In 2006, Northe completed a

Certificate IV The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) specifies the standards for educational qualifications in Australia. It is administered nationally by the Australian Government's Department of Industry, with oversight from the States and Territo ...

in Business.

Political and parliamentary career

With repetitive television advertising and campaigning on the issues of workers' rights and bicycle paths, Northe was able to capitalise on divisions within some local branches of the Labor Party to win the seat. Northe doubled the Nationals' primary vote, secured with the aid of

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 ...

and ex-Labor independent preferences. This win also served to help secure the Nationals' future as a political party in Victoria. Russell Northe joined fellow parliamentarians Peter Ryan and Peter Hall as the Nationals' state parliamentary representatives for Gippsland. At the 2010 state election, Northe achieved the biggest pro-Coalition swing in the state to transform Morwell into one of the National Party's safest Victorian seats, with a two-party-preferred margin of 16.29% against Labor. Northe won Morwell on the primary vote, polling 56.24% in his own right, and won every polling booth except the small Yallourn North booth, where Labor recorded a narrow majority. With the Liberal/Nationals Coalition winning government, Northe was also appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business. In 2014, Northe was elevated to Cabinet as Minister for Energy and Resources and Minister for Small Business. He held those ministerial portfolios until the defeat of the Napthine/Ryan Coalition Government at the 2014 state election. After the election defeat and the resignation of long-serving Nationals leader Peter Ryan, Northe pursued the party deputy leadership, but lost to first-term MP Steph Ryan. On 28 August 2017, Northe resigned from the National Party due to stress, depression and gambling issues. According to media reports, he had accrued significant debts exceeding $750,000 owed to over thirty local businessmen, friends, constituents party members, and his own parliamentary leader Peter Walsh, partly due to gambling. Those who were persuaded by Northe to lend him money were said to include former employees in his electorate office and a retrenched power station worker who lost a large portion of his redundancy package. Northe was narrowly re-elected at the 2018 state election, achieving 19.6% of the primary vote, but receiving enough preferences from the Liberal and National Parties to defeat the Labor candidate with a two-party preferred vote of 51.8%. He pledged to be a "conservative independent" member.

External links

Official Website

* ttp://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/rrc Rural & Regional Committee – Parliament of Victoria

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Northe, Russell 1966 births Living people Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Victoria Independent members of the Parliament of Victoria Traralgon Football Club players People from Traralgon 21st-century Australian politicians Ministers for Small Business (Victoria)