Shane Andrew Knuth (born 7 September 1966) is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the

Queensland Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly ...

since 2004, representing three successive seats:

Charters Towers Charters Towers is a rural town in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It is by road south-west from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the town boomed as the rich gold deposits unde ...

(2004–2009), Dalrymple (2009–2017) and

Hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as ...

(2017–present). He has variously represented the National Party (2004–08), the Liberal National Party (2008–11) and

Katter's Australian Party Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is an agrarian political party in Australia. It was founded by Bob Katter, an independent and former Nationals MP for the seat of Kennedy, with a registration application lodged to the Australian Electoral ...

(2011–present).

Biography

Knuth was born in the

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

town of Tully. His brother Jeff Knuth is a former One Nation parliamentarian. Shane Knuth entered the state parliament as the member for Charters Towers at the 2004 state election by defeating incumbent MP Christine Scott of the Labor Party on One Nation preferences. At the 2006 state election, Knuth was re-elected with a large swing, reverting Charters Towers to its traditional status as a comfortably safe National seat. Charters Towers was abolished in a redistribution ahead of the 2009 state election, and Knuth opted to contest the new seat of Dalrymple. The new seat merged most of his former territory, including the city of

, with part of the former seat of Tablelands, represented by One Nation MP Rosa Lee Long. The new seat had a notional LNP majority of 57 percent, and Knuth won with only a small swing against him. On 30 October 2011, Knuth resigned from the Liberal National Party to join Katter's Australian Party. Though most LNP MPs at the time were former Nationals like Knuth, Knuth contended the merger had been a Liberal takeover that had been "disastrous" for regional representation, and left rural MPs shut out of decision-making. Knuth also cited reports that the LNP's organisational wing grilled candidates, and had paid a former Labor official for compromising information on Labor MPs, including their sexual behaviour, as having influenced his decision. At the 2012 state election, despite a massive swing to the LNP statewide, Knuth easily retained his seat, defeating his replacement as LNP candidate by a nearly 2-to-1 two-party margin, winning enough primary votes to retain the seat outright. He was re-elected almost as easily in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

. Dalrymple was abolished in a redistribution ahead of the 2017 election, and Knuth transferred to Hill, essentially the northern portion of his old seat. Although it was notionally a marginal Australian Party seat, Knuth won it on a massive swing of almost 15 percent, turning Hill into a very safe seat in one stroke.

References

, - 1966 births Living people Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Queensland Liberal National Party of Queensland politicians Katter's Australian Party politicians 21st-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Liberal-politician-stub