Bernard Fernand Ripoll (born 6 January 1966) is a former Australian politician. He was a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

from 1998 to 2016, representing the

Division of Oxley The Division of Oxley is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. It is currently represented by Milton Dick, the current Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives, Speaker ...

, Queensland. In 2013, Ripoll was made Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Shadow Minister for Sport, on 15 September 2015 he resigned from the Shadow Cabinet position.

Early life

Ripoll was born on 6 January 1966 in

Pézenas Pézenas (; Languedocien: ''Pesenàs'') is a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Name The name "Pézenas" is derived from the older name ''Piscenae'', probably from the Latin word ''piscenis'', meanin ...

, France, the son of Suzanne (née Servera) and Andre Ripoll. His parents were ''

Pieds-Noirs The (; ; : ) are an ethno-cultural group of people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French colonial rule from 1830 to 1962. Many of them departed for mainland France during and after the ...

'' (European

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

ns) of Spanish ancestry who came to France following the

Algerian Revolution The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) ...

. Ripoll moved to Australia as a child, where he learned to speak English, and became an Australian citizen in 1974. He grew up in

Inala, Queensland Inala is a south-western suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Inala had a population of 15,273 people. Geography Inala is by road south-west of the Brisbane GPO. Inala Avenue/Poinsettia Street is the main roadway e ...

. Ripoll joined the

Royal Australian Air Force The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal Air force, aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the Governor-Gener ...

(RAAF) as a teenager and was an apprentice aircraft electrician from 1983 to 1984. He completed his high school

leaving certificate A secondary school leaving qualification is a document signifying that the holder has fulfilled any secondary education requirements of their locality, often including the passage of a final qualification examination. For each leaving certificate ...

by attending night school. He subsequently worked as an electrician from 1986 to 1990, later completing the degree of

Bachelor of Business A Bachelor of Business (BBus, BBus (Major)) is a three to four year undergraduate degree in the field of business offered by universities from the post-Dawkins era in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. It is similar in format and structure to a B ...

at the

Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...

as a marketing major. Before entering parliament, Ripoll worked as an organiser with the State Public Services Federation of Queensland (now known as the Queensland Public Sector Union) from 1995 to 1998.

Political career

At the 1998 federal election, Ripoll sought to regain Oxley for Labor. The seat had been held by

Pauline Hanson Pauline Lee Hanson (''née'' Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the founder and leader of One Nation, a right-wing populist political party. Hanson has represented Queensland in the Australian S ...

, who formed One Nation after winning the normally safe Labor seat of Oxley in 1996 as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

. Prior to the election, Oxley was divided in half, with most of the old Oxley's more rural territory shifted to the new

Division of Blair The Division of Blair is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. The current MP is Shayne Neumann of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Geography Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at re ...

. Hanson opted to contest Blair, which contained most of her former base. Former

Queensland Premier The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is appointed ...

Wayne Goss Wayne Keith Goss (26 February 1951 – 10 November 2014) was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996, becoming the first Labor Premier of the state in over 32 years. Prior to entering politics, Goss was a solicitor, an ...

had already been preselected as Labor candidate, but a brain tumour forced him to retire from politics, and Ripoll was named in his place. Ripoll was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure in October 2004. On 2 March 2012, Ripoll was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, and appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business from 25 March 2013. In April 2015 Ripoll announced that he would not contest the next election, clearing the way for

Milton Dick Dugald Milton Dick (born 21 July 1972) is an Australian politician serving as the 32nd and current speaker of the Australian House of Representatives since 2022. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he has been the member of parliamen ...

to pursue Labor party preselection. Dick was elected at the 2016 federal election.

Subsequent activities

Ripoll was a director of lobbying firm SAS Group, along with former Nationals MP Larry Anthony.

References

External links

Bernie Ripoll, House of Representatives Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ripoll, Bernie 1966 births Living people People from Pézenas Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians French emigrants to Australia People who lost French citizenship Naturalised citizens of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Oxley Royal Australian Air Force airmen Queensland University of Technology alumni Australian people of Spanish descent Australian people of Algerian descent Australian MPs 1998–2001 Australian MPs 2001–2004 Australian MPs 2004–2007 Australian MPs 2007–2010 Australian MPs 2010–2013 Australian MPs 2013–2016