Russell Broadbent

Biography

Russell Evan Broadbent is an Australian politician who has served as a member of the House of Representatives since 1990. He is a member of the Liberal Party and represents the Division of Monash in Victoria. Broadbent has a long and varied political career, having served in parliament on three separate occasions, first from 1990 to 1993, then from 1996 to 1998, and finally since 2004. He is one of the longest-serving current members of parliament.

Born on December 25, 1950, in Koo Wee Rup, Victoria, Broadbent had a diverse career before entering politics. He was a company director and self-employed retailer, and in the 1970s, he was a singer for the show band The Trutones, which once opened for John Farnham. Broadbent also served on the Pakenham Shire Council, including as shire president, as a commissioner of the Dandenong Valley Authority, and as chairman of the Western Port Development Council.

Broadbent’s political career began in 1984 when he unsuccessfully ran as a candidate for the Division of Streeton in federal elections. He later won a seat in parliament for the marginal Division of Corinella in 1990, but lost to Labor’s Alan Griffin in 1993. He returned to parliament in 1996, representing McMillan after a close race against Barry Cunningham. However, he was defeated by Labor’s Christian Zahra in 1998. In 2004, he won McMillan again after a redistribution made it a notionally Liberal seat. Broadbent has held the seat since then, even after the Coalition lost government in 2007.

Broadbent has held many important positions in parliament, including serving on the speaker’s panel from 2013 to 2019 and serving as chair of the standing committees on privileges and members’ interests and treaties. In 2017, he resigned from the speaker’s panel and his committee chairmanship to protest the Turnbull government’s inaction on aged care.

Broadbent is known for his moderate views and has been identified as a member of the Liberal Party’s small-l liberal wing. He has advocated for better treatment of asylum seekers and has been critical of harsh asylum seeker policies. He has also expressed concern about climate change and has called for improved funding for Landcare Australia. In 2021, he called on the Morrison government to support the Uluru Statement from the Heart and move towards constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians.

Broadbent has taken controversial stances on some issues. In December 2017, he was one of only four members of the House of Representatives to vote against the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017, which legalised same-sex marriage in Australia. In 2021, he made headlines for his personal decision not to be vaccinated against COVID-19, despite a state mandate that all authorised workers must be vaccinated. Broadbent later caught COVID and self-administered Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug primarily produced to cure heartworm in animals that is banned for human consumption in Australia. In 2022, he opposed plans by Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to continue with a series of tax cuts on high-income earners.