Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull Name Luke Hartsuyker Preceded by Kate Ellis Spouse Irene Hartsuyker | Succeeded by Office Abolished Preceded by Garry Nehl | |
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Preceded by No Immediate Predecessor Prime Minister Tony Abbott
Malcolm Turnbull Role Member of the Australian House of Representatives Party National Party of Australia Office Member of the Australian Parliament since 2001 Profiles | ||
Education University of Newcastle | ||
The Big Banana 50th Celebration - Short version
Luke Hartsuyker (born 26 October 1959) is an Australian politician. He has been a National Party of Australia member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Cowper in New South Wales, since November 2001. Hartsuyker was appointed as the Assistant Minister for Employment and as the Deputy Leader of the House in the Abbott Ministry, being sworn in on 18 September 2013. In September 2015, he was promoted to Minister for Vocational Education and Skills in the First Turnbull Ministry, but he lost his position in a ministerial reshuffle in February 2016.
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Background and career
Hartsuyker was born in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, where he attended a state primary school and state high school alongside his brother. His father, Tom Hartsuyker, who had immigrated from the Netherlands in 1951, established a Dutch-themed tourist park called The Clog Barn in Coffs Harbour. Hartsuyker gained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Newcastle University, and an Associate Diploma Valuation. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Practising Accountants Australia. He managed his father's business before entering politics. He and his wife, Irene, have two sons.
Political career
In the 2001 Australian Federal election Hartsuyker was elected to the Division of Cowper after longstanding Nationals MP Garry Nehl retired from the seat. Hartsuyker retained the seat in subsequent elections: 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016.
An electoral redistribution changed Cowper's boundaries prior to the 2016 election: Port Macquarie was included in Cowper for the first time, whilst the region north of Coffs Harbour was transferred out of Cowper to the Division of Page.
Former Independent MP Rob Oakeshott, who lives in Port Macquarie (which had been within the Division of Lyne prior to the redistribution), contested the Division of Cowper at the 2016 election. A number of seat-level opinion polls in Cowper found the incumbent Hartsuyker and independent Oakeshott neck-and-neck on the two-party-preferred vote. Hartsuyker won re-election, but suffered a swing of 13 percent – the closest that the Nationals had come to losing Cowper in over half a century. The Nationals have held it for all but one term since 1919. While Oakeshott slashed Hartsuyker's two-party margin to 3.2%, Cowper is still a safe National seat in a "traditional" two-party matchup with Labor.
Hartsuyker opposes same-sex marriage and has stated he will not vote for it. A 2011 poll in the Coffs Harbour Advocate, representing those within his electorate, resulted in 78% of respondents in favour of same-sex marriage.