Robert Brokenshire

Infobox Politician
name = Hon Robert Brokenshire
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office = Family First
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nationality = Australian flagicon|Australia
party = Family First
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Robert Brokenshire is an Australian politician in the South Australian Legislative Council.

He was a Liberal Party of Australia member of the South Australian House of Assembly between 1993 and 2006, representing the electorate of Mawson. On 24 July 2008 he replaced Andrew Evans as a Family First Party member in the South Australian Legislative Council.

Liberal Party

Brokenshire was a real estate broker and dairy farmer before entering parliament. In 1993, he was elected amidst the Liberal landslide victory that year, which saw Dean Brown become Premier. He was a backbencher throughout Brown's term as Premier, but was promoted to the ministry in 1998, two years after John Olsen assumed the premiership, with the portfolios of Minister for Police, Correctional Services and Emergency Services. He later gained the gambling and volunteer porfolios.

After the Liberals returned to opposition in 2002, Brokenshire retained his major portfolios of police and gambling and added responsibilities for the southern suburbs and health in 2005. He lost his seat to Labor candidate Leon Bignell at the 2006 election, and was unsuccessful in an attempt to win Liberal preselection for a subsequent Legislative Council vacancy, losing to moderate Stephen Wade.

Family First Party

Brokenshire made the shock announcement in October 2007 that he was defecting to the Family First Party, and would contest the Australian House of Representatives seat of Kingston for the party at the 2007 federal election, but achieved only a 0.07 percent swing towards Family First, on 5.71 percent.

On 18 March 2008 the Family First Party announced that they had chosen Brokenshire to replace the retiring Andrew Evans in the South Australian Legislative Council later in 2008. [ [http://sa.familyfirst.org.au/ Family First Press Release] ] Brokenshire was then sworn in on the morning of Thursday 24 July 2008. [ [http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24070079-2682,00.html "New MLC Robert Brokenshire puts major parties on notice"] AdelaideNow (The Advertiser online), July 24th, 2008 "Retrieved on July 24th, 2008"] [ [http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/24/2313076.htm "Ex Lib back in Parliament for Family First"] ABC News Online, July 24th, 2008 "Retrieved on July 24th, 2008"]

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