Alex Hawke

Alex Hawke
Member for Mitchell
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 November 2007
Preceded by	Alan Cadman
Personal details
Born	(1977-07-09) 9 July 1977 Wollongong, New South Wales
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia
Website	Alex Hawke MP

Alexander George Hawke (born 9 July 1977) is the Liberal Member of Parliament for the federal seat of Mitchell, in north-western metropolitan Sydney. A former president of the Young Liberals at both New South Wales and national levels, he was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2007 federal election.

Personal

Hawke's maternal grandparents migrated from Greece in 1953 as part of the post World War II migration to Australia from Europe. He attended Hills Grammar School then Cumberland High School. Hawke then studied at the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters in Government and Public Affairs. At university he joined the Army Reserve, where, out of a class of 120, he was one of only 20 who graduated. He became a Lieutenant and served for six years with the 1st/15th Royal NSW Lancers.

One of Hawke's earliest forays into politics was during his time as a student at Cumberland High School, where he had some success in student elections Already a passionate free market advocate, he has claimed he was thrown out of an economics class for telling a teacher there was more to economics than Keynes.

Hawke is an Anglican, but has been described as occasionally attending Hillsong Church.

Early career

Hawke joined the Liberal Party in 1995, and was elected Vice-President of the NSW Division of the Young Liberal Movement in 2001, and became President in 2002. He served on the Liberal Party NSW State Executive from 2002-2005, and in 2005 was elected Federal President of the Young Liberal Movement. He remains a member of the Liberal Party campaign Committee, and a Delegate to the Liberal Party State Council.

Hawke began his employment in the private sector in 1998, becoming manager of a major retailer in the Hills District. Following graduation, he worked as an electorate officer to Ross Cameron MP, Member for Parramatta. In 2001, he commenced work as an adviser to the Senator Helen Coonan, then Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer, advising on taxation, superannuation and insurance matters during the time of the HIH liquidation. Alex has also worked as an adviser to David Clarke MLC and Ray Williams MP.

In August 2005, Hawke attracted some controversy, former NSW opposition leader John Brogden blamed Hawke for contributing to his downfall by leaking information to the media and political enemies - a claim that Hawke strongly denied and for which no evidence exists. Brogden was later to commit an apparent attempt at suicide in his Pittwater electoral office on 30 August 2005.

This claim was strongly denied by Hawke, who stated "I have not spoken to a single journalist, on or off the record, about this matter until now and I was not in attendance at the function where Mr Brogden committed these acts. To ascribe any role to me in this embarrassing episode is false and I reject it totally".

Election to Parliament

On 16 June 2007, Alex Hawke gained preselection for the seat of Mitchell by a margin of 81 votes to 20 against David Elliott, deputy chief of the Australian Hotels Association. Paul Blanch, a grazier from Orange, received 8 votes. Alan Cadman, who had been the member for Mitchell since 1974, chose not to contest the preselection, but was later quoted as saying that this was due to "relentless branch-stacking within the electorate.".

Political ideology

In making his First Speech in the House of Representatives, Hawke described his political beliefs as follows: "My brand of Liberalism is more interested in what we support than what we oppose. I want not just to resist those things that are harmful but to support those things that are good. I derive no satisfaction from opposing the growth of state sponsored welfare if I cannot fan the spark of family, enterprise, self-reliance and human dignity", for which he was praised by Liberal politician Tony Abbott for "a splendid maiden speech which managed to combine a robust expression of political philosophy and a hymn of praise to his splendid electorate."

In 2005, Hawke made it known that he believes the Liberal Party of Australia to be the home of conservative values, and has claimed that "Nobody joins the Liberal Party to be left-wing. If you stand for compulsory student unionism, drug-injecting rooms and lowering the [homosexual] age of consent, you can choose the Greens, Labor or the Democrats."

In response to comments that that Liberal Party is a "broad church", Hawke has stated "People say it's a broad church. My response to that is you've got to agree it's a church. It's not a brothel, for instance. If people want to legalise drug-injecting rooms, lower the age of consent, go with all these trendy things, this is not the party that believes in those things. We're not that broad.".

The Sydney Morning Herald reported his comments when he was younger, after his 2007 preselection, that he thinks Australia will move increasingly towards an American model of conservatism and that "The two greatest forces for good in human history are capitalism and Christianity, and when they're blended it's a very powerful duo."

Alex Hawke strongly rejects various reports and allegations that he is a "right-wing extremist", saying he represents the values of his electorate.

External links

• Parliamentary Website