Warren Entsch

Warren George Entsch (born 31 May 1950), Australian politician, has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1996 to November 2007, representing the Division of Leichhardt, Queensland. He was born in Babinda, Queensland and served in the Royal Australian Air Force 1969-78. He was a maintenance fitter and welder, real estate agent, farmer and grazier and company director before entering politics.

Entsch was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources 1998-2001 and was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources from 2001 to 2006.

In September 2004 Entsch publicly spoke against his party's anti-gay-marriage stance, describing laws to prevent gay marriage as "offensive" and "unnecessary" [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10789749%5E2702,00.html] . As a result of his pro-gay statements, the Family First Party - which preferenced Liberal/National Coalition candidates ahead of Labor candidates in almost every other seat, nation-wide - directed their preferences to Labor instead of Entsch. Nevertheless, he won re-election with an increased majority of both the primary and two-party-preferred vote.

In December 2005, he pledged support for a civil union scheme after the UK began granting civil partnerships.

He was interviewed for the 'The Pink Broad' (Issue 15, published Wednesday 22 February, 2006), a fortnightly gay and lesbian newspaper, in which he confirmed that he planned to sponsor a private member’s bill in Federal Parliament within months that promised to eradicate discrimination and the "inequities" faced by Australia's gay and lesbian population under Federal law. He went on to say in the article, "I would think that if I was a gay activist, people would say 'Oh, just another bloody fairy out there trying to push his own agenda', but because of my background, people are a little bit puzzled by it and sitting up and listening. . . and in fact I'm getting a lot of people that are not gay coming up to me and saying to me 'Hey, you know, we've got gay friends and family too'. And this is what I've found here, in this place as well. . . mind you, there are some who are still a little bemused. They don't quite understand it."

In May 2006, he wrote to all coalition MPs asking them to support such a bill. When interviewed, he said this bill would encompass not only same-sex couples but any interdependent relationship: "You need to take the sex out of this debate. There are other emotions of interdependency that come into play – it’s not exclusive to one gender balance or another." [http://evolutionpublishing.com.au/sxnews/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=444&Itemid=41] [http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1657756.htm]

Post politics Warren now sits as an independent Director on the board of CEC Group, and is a Director of the Australian Rainforest Foundation.

External links

* [http://www.warrenentsch.com.au Warren Entsch, Federal Member for Leichhardt]

Persondata
NAME=Entsch, Warren George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Australian politician
DATE OF BIRTH=31 May 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH=Babinda, Queensland, Australia
DATE OF DEATH=living
PLACE OF DEATH=