David Gibson (Australian politician)

David Gibson MP
Member for Gympie
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 September 2006
Preceded by	Elisa Roberts
Personal details
Born	13 October 1967 (1967-10-13) (age 44)
Political party	National (2006–2008) Liberal National (2008–)

David Francis Gibson (born 13 October 1967) is an Australian politician. Born in Fremantle, Western Australia, he graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon before moving to Queensland, where he became manager of The Gympie Times.

In 2006, he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as the National Party member for Gympie, defeating sitting independent Elisa Roberts, a former One Nation MP. He joined the Liberal National Party when it formed in September 2008.

He currently serves as the Shadow Minister for Local Government and the Shadow Minister for Sport.

Early life

David was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, as the eldest of two children to deaf parents. As a child of deaf adults he took on the role of interpreting for his parents to help them communicate in a hearing world.

Early career

David began his military career in 1985 as an Army Reserve Private in the West Australian University Regiment whilst still at high school. In 1986 he entered the Royal Military College Duntroon and graduated serving as an Army officer for 8 ½ years before embarking on a career in media marketing and management.

In 2001 he commenced working for the APN Newspaper The NewsMail as its Newspaper Sales and Marketing Manager. In June 2004 he was promoted as to the position of General Manager of the APN publication The Gympie Times in Gympie, Queensland.

Parliamentary career

David was elected to the Queensland Parliament at the September 2006 state election, winning the safe Independent seat of Gympie for the National Party from a field of seven candidates. In the 52nd Parliament he served on the Public Accounts Committee. Promoted to Shadow Cabinet 16 months after entering Parliament he took on the responsibilities as Shadow Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change & Innovation, and Shadow Minister for Clean Energy Strategy. Re-elected in the March 2009 state election, the electorate of Gympie is now the safest seat in the Parliament. He held the senior portfolio as the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure & Planning until September 2010.

He was the first member of any Parliament in Australia to give a maiden speech in sign language and many give him credit for lobbying to bring the National Week of Deaf People activities into the Parliament, including the provisions of interpreters for Question Time and a debate between members of the deaf community and Members of Parliament on disability issues in 2009.^[1]

David was also the first MP to engage a Deaf student as an intern.^[2]

Community activities

David is a member of the Gympie Apex club and has held executive roles on local P&Cs at his children’s schools and various community organisations.

He is a director of Deaf Services Queensland.

Personal

He is married and has a blended family of 5 children, 4 sons and a daughter.

Links

• LNP Profile
• Home Page

References

1. ^ http://news.smh.com.au/national/deaf-community-invited-to-parliament-20071017-14st.html
2. ^ http://www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2008/08/27/apn-australian-first-twice-for/

Parliament of Queensland
Preceded by Elisa Roberts	Member for Gympie 2006 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Gibson, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	13 October 1967
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death