Peter John Debnam (born 21 April 1954), is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

representing

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.

between 1994 and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. Debnam is a former Leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party,

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

and Shadow Minister for Western Sydney, Redfern/Waterloo and Citizenship. He also held the shadow portfolios of Infrastructure and Energy.

Early life and career

Debnam's early years of schooling were at Frenchs Forest Public School and The Forest High School. Debnam was educated at the Royal Australian Naval College, where he graduated in 1974. He served in the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...

from 1972 to 1980. During his Naval career, Debnam served on many ships including the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

, destroyer escort , destroyers and and patrol boats and . After leaving the navy, Debnam studied at the

Macquarie Graduate School of Management Macquarie Business School (MQBS) is a constituent body of Macquarie University, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. MQBS is a business school originally established as the Faculty of Business and Economics. The School is the focal point for ...

, where he gained an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

. He held positions at Dalgety Farmers Limited, Hawker de Havilland and Australian Aircraft Consortium before entering politics.

Political career

In 1994, Debnam was elected to the

, winning a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

for the safe Liberal seat of Vaucluse. The following year the Liberal government was defeated by

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 ...

under

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the New South Wales Labor Party, New South Wales branch of the A ...

. Between 1997 and 2005 Debnam was successively Shadow Minister for Housing and for Planning and Urban Affairs, Shadow Treasurer, Shadow Minister for Transport, Shadow Minister for Police and Shadow Minister for Transport Services. Following John Brogden's sudden resignation as Liberal Leader in August 2005, the Deputy Leader,

Barry O'Farrell Barry Robert O'Farrell (born 24 May 1959) is an Australian former politician who was Australia's List of Australian High Commissioners to India, High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan from February 2020 to 30 June 202 ...

, was initially the favourite to become leader, but Debnam steadily gained ground as he lobbied Liberal MPs, and on 31 August O'Farrell withdrew from the contest.

Allegations against Attorney-General

On 16 November 2006, Debnam suggested under

Parliamentary Privilege Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made in the course of their legislative duties ...

that NSW Attorney-General

Bob Debus Robert John Debus (born 16 September 1943) is a former Australian politician who served as a member of the Australian House of Representatives and the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing the Labor Party. Debus has been a minist ...

was under investigation by the

Police Integrity Commission The Police Integrity Commission, was a statutory corporation of the New South Wales Government, responsible for the prevention, detection, and investigation of alleged serious misconduct in the Police Force in the state of New South Wales, A ...

. In response, the Government released a police report stating that a minister had been the subject of complaints (not an investigation), and that they were dismissed in 2003 as spurious and groundless. The report did not name the minister concerned as it was, deemed to be 'not in the public interest'. When Mr Debnam declined to provide evidence to support his claims, he was censured by Parliament for misleading the House. It was subsequently reported that Debnam's source for the accusation was a convicted child sex offender and bank robber with a history of making unsubstantiated allegations. Opinion poll support for the Opposition leader declined markedly in the wake of the allegations, which also distracted attention from a campaign against the Government over the sacking of Ministers Milton Orkopoulos and Carl Scully.

2007 election

Peter Debnam led the Liberal/National coalition to defeat in the 2007 state election. The Coalition gained a total of four seats from Labor and independents—too few to significantly reduce Labor's majority. Following the election, his deputy, O'Farrell, announced he would challenge Debnam for the Liberal leadership. When it was apparent that Debnam did not have enough support to keep his post, he withdrew from the contest on 2 April 2007, effectively handing the leadership to O'Farrell. On 11 April 2007 O'Farrell appointed Debnam as opposition infrastructure and energy spokesman. He resigned in May 2008 because of his party's decision to support the Labor Government's plan to privatise the electricity system. He retired from Parliament prior to the 2011 state election.

References

Bibliography

External links

Speeches in Parliament by Peter DebnamPeter Debnam's Web Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Debnam, Peter 1954 births Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Politicians from Sydney Royal Australian Navy officers Graduates of the Royal Australian Naval College Australian businesspeople Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Leaders of the opposition in New South Wales Macquarie University alumni 21st-century Australian politicians