Colin Hollis (born 30 May 1938) is a retired Australian politician. He was a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

from 1983 to 2001, representing the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

(ALP).

Early life

Hollis was born on 30 May 1938 in

Wauchope, New South Wales Wauchope ( ) is a town in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is within the boundaries of the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council area. Wauchope is inland on the Hastings River and the Oxley Highway west of Port Mac ...

. He holds the degrees of

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

and

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

( Hons.) from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, where he studied economics. He also holds a diploma in international affairs from the University of London and a diploma in continuing education from the

University of New England University of New England may refer to: * University of New England (Australia), in New South Wales, with about 26,000 students * University of New England (United States), in Biddeford, Maine, with about 6,000 students See also * New England Coll ...

. He was a regional director of the

Workers' Educational Association Workers' Educational Associations (WEA) are not-for-profit bodies that deliver further education to adults in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. WEA UK WEA UK, founded in 1903, is the UK's largest voluntary sector provider of adult edu ...

before entering parliament.

Politics

Hollis was secretary of the Jamberoo branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1977 to 1983. He was elected to parliament at the 1983 federal election, winning the seat of Macarthur from the incumbent Liberal MP Michael Baume. He switched to Throsby at the 1984 election, representing the seat until his retirement prior to the 2001 election. Hollis was a deputy chairman of committees from 1989 to 1994 and served on the

speaker's panel The Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the Australian House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia. The counterpart in the upper house is the president of the Senate. Th ...

from 1994 to 2001. He served on a number of parliamentary committees, including as chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works from 1987 to 1996, and participated in a number of parliamentary delegations overseas. In 1995, he was made a commander of the

Order of the Lion of Finland Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

for services to Australia–Finland relations. In parliament, Hollis was a member of the

Labor Left The Labor Left (LL), also known as the Progressive Left, Socialist Left or simply the Left, is one of the two major political factions within the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It is nationally characterised by social progressivism and democra ...

faction. In 1987 he became the founding chairman of Australian Parliamentarians Against Apartheid. In 1994 he publicly opposed the

Keating government The Keating government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Paul Keating of the Australian Labor Party from 1991 to 1996. The government followed on from the Hawke government after Paul Keating replaced Bob ...

's program of privatisation. Hollis faced challenges for

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presel ...

on several occasions, both from the

Labor Right The Labor Right (LR), also known as Labor Forum, Labor Unity or simply Unity, is one of the two major political factions within the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It is nationally characterised by social democratic to Third Way economic policies ...

faction and from within his own faction. In 1994 he accused the right faction of

branch stacking Branch stacking is a term used in Australian politics to describe the act of recruiting or signing up members for a local branch of a political party for the principal purpose of influencing the outcome of internal preselection of candidates for ...

in his electorate using members of the Macedonian community.

Personal life

Hollis married his long-term partner Gordon Streek, a community theatre director, a few years before Streek's death in 2021. In 2001, he lodged an unsuccessful discrimination case against the federal government in the

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of the Commonwealth of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body ...

over its failure to reimburse travel costs for the same-sex partners of MPs when travelling with the M.P. on official Parliamentary duties Hollis is prominent in rose-growing circles and has served as president of the NSW Rose Society and the National Rose Society of Australia. He was awarded the Australian Rose Award in 2019. Hollis has been involved in creating, and maintaining, the rose beds in Peace Park Kiama . and is currently the co-ordinator of the Volunteers of Peace (10) The Buigle) Over recent years he has worked closely with Mrs Linda Hurley in obtaining a rose to honour the Wives of the Governors of NSW (The Governors' Wife Rose) and more recently a Rose to honour the wives of Australian Governor Generals (The Lady of Australia Rose)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollis, Colin Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Macarthur Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Throsby Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Alumni of the University of London Alumni of the Open University 1938 births Living people 21st-century Australian politicians Australian politicians convicted of crimes LGBTQ legislators in Australia Rose breeders People from Wauchope, New South Wales Members of the Australian House of Representatives Australian MPs 1983–1984 Australian MPs 1984–1987 Australian MPs 1987–1990 Australian MPs 1990–1993 Australian MPs 1993–1996 Australian MPs 1996–1998 Australian MPs 1998–2001