Preceded by New seat Nationality Australian Succeeded by Peter Knott Name John Sharp | Preceded by Wal Fife Role Member of Parliament Succeeded by Alby Schultz | |
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Born 15 December 1954 (age 69)
Sydney ( 1954-12-15 ) Political party National Party of Australia Party National Party of Australia | ||
John Randall Sharp (born 15 December 1954), Australian politician, is a former National Party member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the Divisions of Gilmore and Hume in New South Wales.
He became Minister for Transport and Regional Development when the Coalition government under John Howard took office after the 1996 federal election.
Sharp resigned from the ministry on 24 September 1997 after becoming involved in a scandal over misuse of parliamentary travel allowances. The "Travel Rorts Affair" – which also claimed the ministerial careers of Peter McGauran and David Jull – unfolded when an audit of parliamentary expense claims revealed that a number of MPs had inadvertently submitted incorrect travel claims. He retired from Parliament on 31 August 1998, prior to the 1998 election.
After retiring from politics, Sharp founded a transport consultancy company, and became deputy chairman of Regional Express Airlines.
In 2014 it was revealed in the ABC programme A Country Road: The Nationals that sometime before the 1998 Federal election, Sharp had met with then National Party leader Tim Fischer and his deputy John Anderson for a luncheon and were surprised to learn from each other that they all intended to retire at that forthcoming election. All three of them did not think it was a good idea for all of them to retire at the same time as it did not give a positive image to the party which is battling against perceptions that it does not have a certain future. In the end only Sharp retired with Fischer and Anderson delaying their own retirements by successfully recontesting the aforementioned election.