Ron Boswell

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox officeholder Ronald Leslie Doyle Boswell Template:Post-nominals (born 9 December 1940) is a former Australian politician. He was a Senator for Queensland from 1983 to 2014, representing the National Party. He was the party's Senate leader from 1990 to 2007, a record term. He was also a parliamentary secretary in the Howard government from 1999 to 2003. He was Father of the Senate from 2008 until his retirement in 2014.

Early life

Boswell was born in Perth on 9 December 1940.<ref name=aph>Template:Cite web</ref> In his memoirs he recalled a tumultuous childhood including "two parental separations, frequent changes of school, and an abduction (by his mother, accompanied by her lover) to Melbourne".<ref name=rodan/>

Boswell spent his early years in Perth, attending five schools in six years. He moved to Brisbane after his father was transferred for work reasons,<ref name=rodan>Template:Cite news</ref> where he attended St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Boswell left school at the age of 14 and began working as an office boy at an insurance firm.<ref name=rodan/> He later worked as an insurance agent and travelling salesman, including selling paintbrushes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He first came into contact with Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen in his role as a manufacturers' agent, lobbying against the deregulation of weekend trading hours.<ref name=rodan/>

Politics

Early involvement

File:Ronald Leslie Doyle Boswell.jpg

Boswell in the 1990s, during the Howard government.

Boswell was convinced to join the National Party by his wife, a long-time member.<ref name=rodan/> He was elected chairman of the party's Wynnum branch in 1974 and to the party's central council in 1976, serving on its management committee and as a metropolitan vice-president.<ref name=aph/> He was also chairman of the party's fishing industry committee.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Opposition (1983–1996)

In 1982, Boswell won preselection for the third position on the National Party's Senate ticket in Queensland, behind incumbent senators Florence Bjelke-Petersen and Stan Collard.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was elected to a three-year Senate term at the 1983 federal election, which followed a double dissolution.<ref name=aph/> In the lead-up to the election he hired a publicity officer "to get his name known in provincial Queensland".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He would be re-elected to the Senate on a further six occasions, in 1984, 1987, 1990, 1996, 2001 and 2007.<ref name=aph/>

Prior to the 1984 election, Boswell controversially announced that he would deny supply to the Hawke government if it were re-elected, leading to a public rebuke from National Party leader Ian Sinclair.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1988, Boswell was added to John Howard's shadow ministry, holding the regional development and external territories portfolio under Howard and his successor Andrew Peacock until 1990. He returned to the shadow cabinet in 1993 under John Hewson, holding the portfolios of Northern Australia and external territories. He was moved to the consumer affairs portfolio in May 1994 after Alexander Downer became opposition leader.<ref name=aph/> In December 1994 he and five other conservative senators crossed the floor to vote against the Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994, which guaranteed sexual privacy. Downer supported the legislation and Boswell consequently resigned from the shadow cabinet.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Following a National Party leadership spill after the 1990 election, Boswell was elected as the party's Senate leader, defeating David Brownhill.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He would retain the position for a record 17 years, until stepping down after the 2007 election.<ref name=aph/>

Howard government (1996–2007)

Boswell was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport and Regional Services in July 1999 but left the position in October 2003.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After he was succeeded as leader of the Nationals in the Senate by Nigel Scullion following the 2007 election, Boswell became Scullion's deputy. He was succeeded in that position by Fiona Nash in 2008.<ref name=aph/>

Boswell's bid for re-election at the 2001 election was framed as a head-to-head contest between him and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson for Queensland's sixth Senate seat.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In his valedictory speech to the Senate in 2014, he stated that he "risked everything to stand up against her aggressive, narrow view of Australia [...] defeating Pauline Hanson and One Nation in 2001 has been my greatest political achievement".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was an outspoken opponent of other far-right groups such as the League of Rights and the Citizens Electoral Council,<ref name=rodan/> in 1988 denouncing the League of Rights as "racist, anti-semitic and neo-Nazi".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Final years (2007–2014)

Boswell reluctantly announced his support for the merger of the Nationals and Liberals in 2008, seeing the creation of the Liberal National Party of Queensland as "the lesser of two evils" following suggestions that a new standalone conservative party should be created.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2011, Boswell was a critic of the then Australian Government's carbon emissions trading scheme. He called for the scheme to be abandoned.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 17 September 2012, during a Senate debate on a proposed marriage inequality bill, Boswell spoke out against same sex marriage in Australia stating: "Two mothers or two fathers can’t raise a child properly. Who takes the boy to football? Who tells him what's right from wrong? What does he do? Go along with mum, or two mums? How does he go camping or fishing? It won’t work, it’s defying nature!"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Boswell announced on 21 September 2012 that he did not intend to seek re-election in 2013 and would retire when his Senate term expired in 2014.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

In 1966, Boswell married Leita Beattie, who worked as a schoolteacher at Moreton Bay College for over 40 years. He was widowed in 2021.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Boswell published his memoirs, Ron Boswell: Not Pretty, But Pretty Effective, in December 2023.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

External links

• Template:Official website