Julian McGauran

Julian McGauran (born 5 March 1957), Australian politician, is a member of the Australian Senate, representing the state of Victoria. Elected as a member of the National Party, he resigned from the Nationals and joined the Liberal Party of Australia in February 2006. His brother, Peter McGauran, was the National member for Gippsland until 2008, and was a Minister for Agriculture under the Howard government.

McGauran attended Xavier College in Kew Melbourne and Monash University before becoming an accountant and then a company director for the McGauran Group of Companies, and a board member of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry between 1986 and 1988. He was elected to the Melbourne City Council for three years between 1985 and 1988.

McGauran won National Party preselection for a Senate seat in the 1987 double-dissolution election, and was subsequently elected. He was defeated in 1990, but was re-elected in 1993, and has held his seat ever since. In 1999, McGauran was promoted to National Party Whip in the Senate.

Before the 2004 election, McGauran faced a pre-selection challenge from three party members, including Scott Mitchell, a former staffer to Trade Minister Mark Vaile. McGauran retained National Party pre-selection after media reports suggested the federal coalition agreement would be endangered if he lost, and thus gained the guaranteed second position on the joint Liberal-National ticket and was re-elected.

On 11 August, after the Liberal-National Coalition narrowly won a vote in the Senate, he made a gesture to Labor Party senators on the floor of the Senate in response to comments. This prompted calls from Labor senators and Greens Senator Bob Brown that he be sacked as Deputy Government Whip in the Senate. Senate President Paul Calvert ruled that the gesture was "unseemly but not obscene." [ [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/08/12/1123353491171.html McGauran escapes punishment for gesture - National - theage.com.au ] ]

In 2005 McGauran was accused of releasing to "The Age" newspaper the private patient records of a woman who had had an abortion, in breach of a Supreme Court suppression order; however, he denies this accusation [http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/row-grows-in-lateterm-abortion-case/2005/07/01/1119724809174.html] . The Victoria Health Minister, Bronwyn Pike, is quoted in the article as saying that McGauran was "exploiting this woman in pursuit of his own ideological agenda", describing the act as an assault on the doctor-patient relationship.

On 23 January 2006 McGauran announced that he was resigning from the National Party and would apply to join the Liberal Party. He said there was no longer any significant policy difference between the Nationals and Liberals in Victoria at a federal level, and that he would be best able to represent rural Victorians as a member of the Liberal Party. His application was accepted by the Liberals on 3 February. [ [http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18032946%255E1702,00.html Liberals accept Julian McGauran | Herald Sun ] ]

McGauran caused controversy at the 2008 Gippsland by-election caused by the resignation of his brother, by donating $40,000 to the Liberal candidate rather than the National candidate, Darren Chester. [ [http://www.theage.com.au/national/timely-political-payback-by-mcgauran-20080627-2y53.html Timely political payback by McGauran? | theage.com.au ] ]

References

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NAME=McGauran, Julian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Australian politician
DATE OF BIRTH=March 5, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH=living
PLACE OF DEATH=