Ronald Leslie Doyle Boswell (born 9 December 1940) is an Australian former politician. He represented the Nationals in the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...

for Queensland from 1983 to 2014 and led the party in the Senate from 1990 to 2007. He became Father of the Senate in 2008.

Early life

Boswell was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia and was educated at

St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace , motto_translation = To serve God is to be wise , address = 285 Gregory Terrace , city = Brisbane , state = Queensland , postcode = 4000 , country = Australia , ...

, Brisbane, Queensland.

Career

He was the leader of the National Party in the Senate from 10 April 1990 to 3 December 2007 and held many positions in the Coalition shadow ministry including Shadow Minister for Regional Development and External Territories (from September 1988 to April 1990), Shadow Minister for Northern Australia and External Territories (April 1993 to May 1994) and Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs (May 1994 to December 1994). Boswell was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport and Regional Services in July 1999 but left the position in October 2003. After he was succeeded as leader of the Nationals in the Senate by

Nigel Scullion Nigel Gregory Scullion (born 4 May 1956) is a former Australian politician who was a Australian Senate, Senator for the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2019. He was a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) and sat with the National Party of A ...

following the 2007 election, Boswell became Scullion's deputy. He was succeeded in that position by

Fiona Nash Fiona Joy Nash (née Morton; born 6 May 1965) is a former Australian politician. She served as a Senator for New South Wales from 2005 to 2017, representing the National Party. She was the party's deputy leader from 2016 to 2017 and was a ca ...

in 2008. In 2011, Boswell was a critic of the then Australian Government's carbon emissions trading scheme. He called for the scheme to be abandoned. On 17 September 2012, during a Senate debate on a proposed marriage inequality bill, Boswell spoke out against

same sex marriage in Australia Same-sex marriage in Australia has been legal since 9 December 2017. Legislation to allow same-sex marriage, the ''Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017'', passed the Australian Parliament on 7 December 2017 and receiv ...

stating: "Two mothers or two fathers can’t raise a child properly. Who takes the boy to football? Who tells him what's right from wrong? What does he do? Go along with mum, or two mums? How does he go camping or fishing? It won’t work, it’s defying nature!" At the same time he remained an outspoken opponent of fringe conservative movements such as the

Australian League of Rights The Australian League of Rights is a far-right and antisemitic political organisation in Australia. It was founded in Adelaide, South Australia, by Eric Butler in 1946, and organised nationally in 1960. It inspired groups like the Canadian Leag ...

and One Nation. Boswell announced on 21 September 2012 that he did not intend to seek re-election in 2013 and would retire when his Senate term expired in 2014. He published his memoirs, ''Ron Boswell: Not Pretty, But Pretty Effective'' in December 2023.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boswell, Ron 1940 births Living people Liberal National Party of Queensland members of the Parliament of Australia National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Australian Senate for Queensland Politicians from Perth, Western Australia Delegates to the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998 20th-century Australian politicians People educated at St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace 21st-century Australian politicians Officers of the Order of Australia