Early Political Career
On 16 February 1959, the Member for Upper Hunter, D'Arcy Rose, retired and Punch was preselcted to contest the seat for the Country Party. He was duly elected on 21 March 1959 at the election, gaining 52.48% of the vote.
He represented Upper Hunter until 5 February 1962 when he contested the nearby seat of Gloucester at the 1962 election, which had been left vacant by the retirement of the sitting member, Ray Fitzgerald. Punch contested preselection for Gloucester against Alan Borthwick, who had contested Gloucester previously 1959 as an Independent candidate. Borthwick won the ballot, but Punch appealed to the State Executive claiming irregularities in the vote. The party eventually resolved the matter by endorsing both Borthwick and Punch for the election, creating the unusual situation where two Country Party candidates contested the same seat. Despite this, Borthwick was excluded on the second count and Punch was elected with 64.09% against Labor. Punch was re-elected a further eight times with a significant majority.
In 1966 he was appointed as a Councillor for the University of Newcastle, an office which he held until 1974. In his early political years he remained on the backbench and gained parliamentary experience as Chairman of Committees from 26 March 1968 to 13 January 1971 and 16 March 1971 to 17 January 1973.
Read more about this topic: Leon Punch
Famous quotes containing the words early, political and/or career:
“Franklin said once in one of his inspired flights of malignity—
Early to bed and early to rise
Make a man healthy and wealth and wise.
As if it were any object to a boy to be healthy and wealthy and wise on such terms.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“My business is stanching blood and feeding fainting men; my post the open field between the bullet and the hospital. I sometimes discuss the application of a compress or a wisp of hay under a broken limb, but not the bearing and merits of a political movement. I make gruel—not speeches; I write letters home for wounded soldiers, not political addresses.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)