Ray Stevens (politician)

Ray Stevens (politician)

Raymond Alexander (Ray) Stevens, MP (born 1 February 1953) is an Australian politician who is the Leader of the House in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.

Born in Townsville, Stevens is married with two children. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Finance and Economics from James Cook University and Macquarie University, and was admitted to the Australian Association of Accountants in 1974, being employed by Price Waterhouse in Sydney. He returned to the family station, "Doncaster" in Richmond, before moving to the Gold Coast in 1979. He ran local businesses in the area and was a councillor on Albert Shire Council from 1988 to 1994, serving as Mayor in 1994. After the amalgamation of Albert and Gold Coast, he was mayor of the latter from 1995 to 1997.

Stevens, as member of the Liberal Party, was elected to state parliament in 2006 as the member for Robina, succeeding former state Liberal leader Bob Quinn. In 2008, Stevens joined the new Liberal National Party with the rest of his party and currently holds the parliamentary position of Shadow Minister Tourism and Racing. The redistribution ahead of the 2009 state election renamed his seat to Mermaid Beach; he was re-elected. On September 11, 2012, Stevens sparked racism claims after using the term "Jihad Jackie" in Parliament to describe opposition spokeswoman Jackie Trad (herself of Catholic-Lebanese heritage). While Stevens withdrew the remark in Parliament upon urging by house speaker, he staunchly maintained using the word Jihad to descibe someone of Arabic heritage, on September 11, was nothing he needed to apologise for. He subsequently said Trad needed to "harden up" and had a "glass jaw".