Rob Hulls
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Rob Hulls | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 23rd Deputy Premier of Victoria | |
| In office 30 July 2007 – 27 November 2010 | |
| Premier | John Brumby |
| Preceded by | John Thwaites |
| Succeeded by | Peter Ryan |
| Constituency | Niddrie |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 23, 1957 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Profession | Solicitor |
Robert Justin Hulls (known as "Rob")(born 23 January 1957) has been a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 1996, representing the electorate of Niddrie. As well as previously serving as the Deputy Premier of Victoria, he was also the state Attorney-General and Minister for Racing.
Rob Hulls was born in Melbourne and was privately educated at the exclusive Xavier College from 1969-72 and then moved to the private Peninsula School from 1973-75. He then completed a law degree at RMIT.
Hulls was previously a Solicitor for the Legal Aid Commission Victoria from 1984-86. He was also Principal, Rob Hulls & Associates Mount Isa, from 1986-90.
Political Career
Federal Parliament
Rob Hulls served one term in Federal Parliament from 1990-93 as the member for Kennedy, Queensland. He was elected in 1990, succeeding the long-standing National Party member, Bob Katter, Sr., who had retired from politics (he died just prior to the election).
In 1993, he was defeated by Bob Katter, the former member's son, who had been a minister in the Bjelke-Petersen, Ahern and Cooper ministries at state level in Queensland.
Victorian State Parliament
Rob Hulls left Queensland soon after the losing his Federal Parliament seat, and in 1994 on returning to Melbourne was appointed Chief of Staff to the Victorian Opposition Leader, Jim Kennan, former Attorney-General, who resigned from State Parliament shortly after. Rob Hulls stayed on as Chief of Staff under Kennan's replacement John Brumby who was Victoria's State Premier from 2007 - 2010. Following his election to the State Parliament, in the lower-house seat of Niddrie, Rob Hulls' replacement as Brumby's Chief of Staff was Julia Gillard, who is now Australia's Prime Minister.
In his state political career Rob Hulls has held the offices of Attorney-General; Minister for Manufacturing Industry and Minister for Racing from 1999-2002; Minister for WorkCover from 2002-2005; Minister for Planning January 2005-December 2006; Minister for Racing from December 2006 - November 2010 and Minister for Industrial Relations from December 2002 - November 2010.
As Attorney-General, Rob Hulls instigated significant changes in Victoria's legal system which saw the establishment of the state's first Charter of Human Rights and reform to Victoria's Upper House. He established special courts for Victoria's indigenous community and introduced an open tender process for applicants to Victoria's judiciary.
He was unsuccessful in a campaign to defrock the legal profession and ban the wearing of wigs in courts, a move that was actively opposed by the Victorian Bar Association. Rob Hulls was quoted as saying that "members of the legal profession could continue to wear wigs in the privacy of their homes if they so wished but the wearing of wigs by the legal profession in the 21st century was outdated and elitist".
He was appointed as Deputy Premier on 30 July 2007 after the retirement of John Thwaites serving as deputy under John Brumby who he had been Chief of Staff to some years earlier and retained the position as Attorney-General until his party's defeat at the election on 27 November 2010.
Personal life
Hulls married twice and lives in Brunswick West with his second wife and has four children. Rob Hulls is a keen supporter of the Geelong Football Club.