Ian Sinclair

For other people named Ian Sinclair, see Ian Sinclair (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable Ian Sinclair AC
Sinclair in 1964
Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office 4 March 1998 – 10 November 1998
Preceded by	Bob Halverson
Succeeded by	Neil Andrew
Leader of the National Party Elections: 1984, 1987
In office 17 January 1984 – 9 May 1989
Deputy	Ralph Hunt Bruce Lloyd
Preceded by	Doug Anthony
Succeeded by	Charles Blunt
Deputy Leader of the National Party
In office 2 February 1971 – 17 January 1984
Leader	Doug Anthony
Preceded by	Doug Anthony
Succeeded by	Ralph Hunt
Minister for Defence
In office 7 May 1982 – 11 March 1983
Prime Minister	Malcolm Fraser
Preceded by	Jim Killen
Succeeded by	Gordon Scholes
Minister for Communications
In office 3 November 1980 – 7 May 1982
Prime Minister	Malcolm Fraser
Preceded by	Tony Staley
Succeeded by	Neil Brown
Minister for Special Trade Representations
In office 19 August 1980 – 3 November 1980
Prime Minister	Malcolm Fraser
Preceded by	Douglas Scott
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Minister for Northern Australia
In office 11 November 1975 – 22 December 1975
Prime Minister	Malcolm Fraser
Preceded by	Paul Keating
Succeeded by	Evan Adermann
Minister for Primary Industry
In office 11 November 1975 – 27 September 1979
Prime Minister	Malcolm Fraser
Preceded by	Rex Patterson
Succeeded by	Peter Nixon
In office 5 February 1971 – 5 December 1972
Prime Minister	John Gorton William McMahon
Preceded by	Doug Anthony
Succeeded by	Lance Barnard
Manager of Opposition Business in the House
In office 14 June 1974 – 11 November 1975
Leader	Billy Snedden
Preceded by	New Position
Succeeded by	Gordon Scholes
Minister for Shipping and Transport
In office 28 February 1968 – 5 February 1971
Prime Minister	John Gorton
Preceded by	Gordon Freeth
Succeeded by	Peter Nixon
Minister for Social Services
In office 22 February 1965 – 28 February 1968
Prime Minister	Sir Robert Menzies Harold Holt John McEwen John Gorton
Preceded by	Reginald Swartz
Succeeded by	Bill Wentworth
Member of the Australian Parliament for New England
In office 30 November 1963 – 31 August 1998
Preceded by	David Drummond
Succeeded by	Stuart St. Clair
Personal details
Born	(1929-06-10) 10 June 1929 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Political party	National
Spouse(s)	Margaret Tarrant (m. 1956; died 1967) Rosemary Fenton (m. 1970)
Children	1 son, 1 daughter

Ian McCahon Sinclair AC (born 10 June 1929) is a former Australian politician who served as leader of the National Party from 1984 to 1989. He was a government minister under six different prime ministers, and later Speaker of the House of Representatives from March to November 1998.

Sinclair was born in Sydney and studied law at the University of Sydney. He later bought a farming property near Tamworth. Sinclair was elected to parliament in 1963, and added to the ministry in 1965 as part of the Menzies Government. Over the following six years, he held various portfolios under four other prime ministers. Sinclair was elected deputy leader of his party in 1971, under Doug Anthony. He was a senior member of the Fraser Government, spending periods as Minister for Primary Industry (1975–1979), Minister for Communications (1980–1982), and Minister for Defence (1982–1983). In 1984, Sinclair replaced Anthony as leader of the Nationals. He led the party to two federal elections, in 1984 and 1987, but was replaced by Charles Blunt in 1989. Sinclair was father of the parliament from 1990 until his retirement at the 1998 election. He spent his last months in parliament as Speaker of the House of Representatives, following the sudden resignation of Bob Halverson; he is the only member of his party to have held the position. He also served as co-chair of the 1998 constitutional convention, alongside Barry Jones.

Early life

Sinclair was born in Sydney, the son of a suburban accountant. He was educated at Knox Grammar School and at the University of Sydney, where he graduated in arts and law. Later, he practised law in Sydney, but soon developed an interest in farming, and acquired a property near Tamworth, in the New England region of northern New South Wales. In 1956, he married Margaret Tarrant, with whom he had three children. After the death of his wife from brain cancer in 1967, he married again in 1970, to Rosemary Fenton, a former Miss Australia 1960, with whom he has one son. His eldest daughter, Fiona, is married to the former Australian politician Peter King.

Political career

In 1961 Sinclair became a Country Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, and at the 1963 election, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the Division of New England.

Two years afterwards, Sinclair was promoted to the ministry, becoming Minister for Social Services in the Liberal-Country Party coalition government of Robert Menzies. In 1968, he became Minister for Shipping and Transport. He and Doug Anthony were seen as the most likely successors to the veteran Country Party leader John McEwen, but when McEwen retired in 1971, it was Anthony who was elected party Leader, while Sinclair was elected Deputy Leader, becoming at the same time Minister for Primary Industry.

After spending the three years of the Whitlam Labor government in opposition, Sinclair again became Minister for Primary Industry in 1975, in the Fraser government. He held this position until 1979, when he was forced to resign from the ministry after being charged with forgery. The charges arose from a dispute over his father's will, on which he was accused of having forged his father's signature. He was acquitted of these charges in August 1980, and then returned to the ministry as Minister for Special Trade Representations. After the 1980 elections he became Minister for Communications. In May 1982, he became Minister for Defence, a post he held until the defeat of the Fraser government at the 1983 election.

Party leader

In January 1984 Anthony resigned the leadership of the National Country Party (as the Country Party had been renamed in 1975), and Sinclair succeeded him. Under his leadership the party was renamed the National Party of Australia (NPA), reflecting the need to broaden the party's base beyond its declining rural constituency. The party made aggressive efforts to challenge in urban seats, but had little success except sometimes in Queensland, where the NPA had historically been the stronger of the non-Labor parties.

Sinclair tried to position the NPA as the party of social conservatism. During the 1984 election he created a controversy by blaming the appearance of AIDS on what he claimed was the Hawke Labor government's policy of "condoning" homosexuality. He also wanted to reduce the number of Asian people immigrating to Australia. In August 1988, he said:

"What we are saying is that if there is any risk of an undue build-up of Asians as against others in the community, then you need to control it ... I certainly believe, that at the moment we need ... to reduce the number of Asians ... We don't want the divisions of South Africa, we don't want the divisions of London. We really don't want the colour divisions of the United States."

Sinclair had a poor relationship with Liberal leader Andrew Peacock, and supported his more conservative rival, John Howard. When Howard became Liberal leader in 1985, the two formed a close partnership.

This alliance was disrupted by the determination of the extremely conservative Queensland branch of the NPA and its leader, Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, to seize the national political agenda. The 76-year-old Bjelke-Petersen launched a campaign to make himself Prime Minister at the 1987 election. As leader of the NPA's most powerful branch, he forced Sinclair to break off the coalition agreement and support his bid. The "Joh for Canberra" campaign was a failure. Due to numerous three-cornered contests and swing voters' alarm at the prospect of Bjelke-Petersen being kingmaker in a hung parliament, the NPA lost several seats, particularly in Queensland, and the Hawke government was elected to a third term. However, the Nationals recorded a national first-preference vote of 11.5% (their highest since 1940), and passed the one-million vote mark for the first time in their history.

Following the 1987 debacle, Sinclair and Howard both found their leaderships under pressure. In May 1989, there were simultaneous, co-ordinated leadership coups in both parties, with Peacock displacing Howard as Liberal leader and Charles Blunt replacing Sinclair. When Blunt lost his seat at the 1990 election, Sinclair made a determined attempt to regain the NPA leadership, but was defeated by Tim Fischer, and retired to the back bench. He was thus the first NPA leader since the formation of the Coalition to have never served as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. By this time he was the Father of the House of Representatives. He was also the last serving Australian politician to be a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, entitling him to the prefix "The Right Honourable".

Post-leadership

Aged nearly 70 and having had heart problems for some time, Sinclair announced his intention to retire from parliament at the 1998 election. In February 1998 Howard appointed Sinclair as Chairman of the Constitutional Convention which debated the possibility of Australia becoming a republic, a role in which he won praise from all sides. When the Speaker of the House, Bob Halverson, suddenly resigned in March, Sinclair was elected to replace him.

Sinclair liked serving as Speaker so much that he wanted to run for another term. However, Stuart St. Clair had already been preselected as the new National candidate in New England and Sinclair had no choice but to retire, which he did at the October 1998 election. He was the last parliamentary survivor of the Menzies, Holt, Gorton and McMahon governments.

In January 2001, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

Sinclair is now the President of AUSTCARE, an international, non-profit, independent aid organisation.

References

Political offices
Preceded by Reginald Swartz	Minister for Social Services 1965–1968	Succeeded by Bill Wentworth
Preceded by Gordon Freeth	Minister for Shipping and Transport 1968–1971	Succeeded by Peter Nixon
Preceded by Doug Anthony	Minister for Primary Industry 1971–1972	Succeeded by Ken Wriedt
Preceded by Rex Patterson	Minister for Primary Industry 1975–1979	Succeeded by Peter Nixon
Preceded by Paul Keating	Minister for Northern Australia 1975	Succeeded by Evan Adermann
Preceded by Douglas Scott	Minister for Special Trade Representations 1979–1980	Position abolished
Preceded by Tony Staley	Minister for Communications 1980–1982	Succeeded by Neil Brown
Preceded by Jim Killen	Minister for Defence 1982–1983	Succeeded by Gordon Scholes
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by David Drummond	Member for New England 1963–1998	Succeeded by Stuart St. Clair
Preceded by Tom Uren	Father of the House of Representatives 1990–1998	Succeeded by Philip Ruddock
Preceded by Robert Halverson	Speaker of the House of Representatives 1998	Succeeded by Neil Andrew
Party political offices
Preceded by Doug Anthony	Leader of the National Country Party/ National Party of Australia 1984–1989	Succeeded by Charles Blunt
Preceded by Doug Anthony	Deputy Leader of the Country Party/ National Country Party/ National Party of Australia 1971–1984	Succeeded by Ralph Hunt