Allan Rocher

Allan Rocher (born 16 February 1936), Australian politician, is a former Liberal Party of Australia member of the Australian House of Representatives, and later an Independent, who represented the blue-ribbon Liberal Division of Curtin in Western Australia from 1981 to 1998.

He originally won Liberal Party endorsement ahead of fellow Senator Fred Chaney. Both men were endeavouring to transfer from the Senate to the House of Representatives. Rocher won the contest due to the backing of the family dynasty led by Sir Charles Court, who had profound disagreements with Chaney on a number of issues including Federalism and Aboriginal Land Rights.

The Rocher endorsement was not popular, and Rocher was only elected to the seat after preferences, which was a previously unimaginable scenario in the Liberal Party's prized Western Australian seat.

After two decades of low profile political service, Rocher was defeated in 1995 for Liberal endorsement by a member of the Court dynasty, Ken Court, son of Sir Charles and brother of the then Premier Richard Court. To add to the irony, Rocher's failure to win endorsement formed part of a set of events that led Fred Chaney to resign from the Liberal Party in protest.

Rocher resigned from the Liberal Party prior to the 1996 Federal election. With the unofficial backing of Liberal Leader John Howard, Rocher successfully recontested his seat as an Independent in that election, winning with just 29.4% of the primary vote and the aid of Australian Labor Party preferences. He lost his seat at the following election in 1998, to Liberal candidate Julie Bishop, his vote having dropped to 17.7%. In 2007, Bishop became deputy leader of the Party, the first Western Australian since Chaney to do so.

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