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Michael Caltabiano

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Michael Caltabiano

Michael Caltabiano (born 8 April 1964) is an Australia politician. He was a Liberal Party of Australia member of the Brisbane City Council from 1996 to 2005, and a Liberal member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 2005 to 2006.

Caltabiano studied engineering at James Cook University and a Master of Philosophy at Nottingham University (UK) and completed a Graduate Diploma of Business at Queensland University of Technology. He worked as an engineer and company director before running for the Brisbane City Council in 1996. A popular local councillor, he held his seat by large majorities. He was also actively involved in party politics, serving as state president of the Liberal Party.

In mid-2005, Labor Deputy Premier Terry Mackenroth resigned from politics, sparking a by-election in his seat of Chatsworth, which included Caltabiano's council ward. Caltabiano was preselected as the Liberal candidate, and faced Chris Forrester, who he had soundly defeated in the previous council election, as the Labor candidate. The Labor government was struggling in the polls at the time, and Caltabiano easily won the seat.

Caltabiano was immediately appointed to the shadow ministry upon his election, taking on the role of Shadow Minister for Transport. He was widely viewed as a rising star in the party, and had been tipped as a future Liberal leader. In August 2006, following the ascension of Bruce Flegg to the Liberal leadership, Caltabiano was promoted to Shadow Treasurer. However, Premier Peter Beattie took advantage of the leadership change to call an early election. Labor preselected Chris Bombolas, a high-profile sports presenter, as its candidate, and the Liberals struggled with a series of early gaffes. The election was extremely close, with Labor announcing the reclamation of their seat on the 10th. As of the 12th September, the seat looks poised to fall to Labor and with 15 of the 17 booths being counted Caltabiano trails Bombolas by 410 votes after preferences, but still refuses to concede.[1] He has not yet announced any future political ambitions in light of his seemingly imminent defeat.


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