Representative Ian Goodenough Contact information

Ian Reginald Goodenough is an Australian politician who was born in Singapore in 1975. He emigrated with his family to Australia in 1984 and became an Australian citizen in 1987. Goodenough is of English, Portuguese, and Malaysian Chinese descent and identifies as a member of the Eurasian community. His family has a long history of notable individuals, including his great-granduncle who was an admiral in the Royal Navy, and a direct ancestor who was the Bishop of Carlisle in the early 19th century.

Goodenough attended Leederville Primary School and Aranmore Catholic College before graduating as the dux of his high school in 1992. He worked for an accounting firm, Hendry Rae & Court while attending night classes at Curtin University, where he eventually received a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1998. He later returned to Curtin to obtain a Master of Business Administration degree in 2003 and attended an executive development program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in Philadelphia.

Goodenough invested money borrowed from his parents into Pipe Supports Australia, a pipe manufacturing and wholesale business, when he was 21. In 1998, he co-founded Westcapital Group, a property developer, and was managing director of both companies. He was named in Business News’ 40 Under 40 in 2006 for his “diverse business interests”. He also served as managing director of several companies in the Claymont Group until 2011 when he resigned, exchanging his shares in the companies for land worth $9.7 million.

Goodenough worked part-time as a research officer in WA’s Department of the Premier and Cabinet from 1997 to 2001 during the Court–Cowan government, where he assisted, among others, the President of the Legislative Council, George Cash, and the government whip, Ian Osborne. He received the Australian government’s Centenary Medal in 2001 for “service to the community through local government, education and charity”.

In December 1997, Goodenough was an unsuccessful candidate for the Town of Vincent’s Mount Hawthorn Ward, placing third of three candidates with 19.40% of the vote. In 1999, he was elected to the City of Wanneroo’s Coastal Ward after the City of Joondalup’s separation from the City of Wanneroo necessitated new elections for both councils. He remained a councillor until his election to federal parliament in September 2013.

Goodenough has been a longstanding member of the Liberal Party and was president of the party’s branch in the Division of Moore from 2007 to 2011, replacing Michaelia Cash following her election to the Senate at the 2007 federal election. He was preselected for Moore in July 2012 and won the seat at the 2013 federal election, replacing the retiring Mal Washer. Goodenough is a member of the National Right faction of the Liberal Party and has been described as a member of the conservative faction of the party, in particular, belonging to the “National Right” faction, headed by Peter Dutton.

Goodenough has been a member of several standing committees, including Procedure and Tax and Revenue, and the Joint Standing Committee for Electoral Matters. He also sits on the Speaker’s Panel, whose members chair the house in the absence of both the Speaker and Deputy Speakers. In the 2018 federal election, Goodenough was re-elected as the member for Moore, but he suffered a -11.0% swing in the two-party preferred vote. He finished with 50.7% of the two-party preferred vote, compared to Labor candidate Tom French on 49.3%, making Moore Western Australia’s most marginal Liberal