Paul Osborne - Political Career

Political Career

Osborne was elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly as an independent representative for the electorate of Brindabella in 1995 on a socially conservative platform. Prior to the 1998 general election, Osborne formed a group called the Osborne Independents Group and ran two candidates in each of the three seats. Osborne was re-elected and Dave Rugendyke, a former police officer, was a seat in the Assembly, representing Ginninderra. The Osborne Independent Group ran on a strong pro-life ticket with stated objectives of blocking both euthanasia legislation and legislation to decriminalise abortion. However, on taking up his seat in the Assembly, Rugendyke chose not to sit with Osborne, but sat as an independent in the Assembly. Less than a year later, at the request of the party, the ACT Electoral Commission deregistered the Osborne Independent Group on 15 February 1999. Osborne and Rugendyke sat in the Assembly as independents from that date.

In 1995, with the support of Osborne and Michael Moore, another independent, Liberal leader, Kate Carnell, formed a minority government. Moore later went on to serve as an independent Minister for Health in the Carnell-led government. In 1998, with support of Rugendyke, Osborne introduced an anti-abortion bill, requiring that more information be provided to women considering the procedure and that there be a 72-hour cooling-off period. His move was vehmently but unsuccessfully opposed by the Health Minister, Moore. The Bill, while consistent with Osborne's Catholic beliefs, damaged his popularity among the suburban voters who had been his chief supporters. (Abortion was decriminalised and the legislation repealed in 2002).

Osborne voted against the 2000 budget in a successful attempt to stop the opening of a supervised injecting room. Although the injecting room had the support of a majority of the Assembly members, Osborne's support was needed to approve the funding in the budget. A new budget without funding for the injecting room was presented to the Assembly soon after and it passed with Osborne's support.

In late 2000, Labor gave notice of an intention to move a no confidence vote against Carnell over the Bruce Stadium affair. The Assembly adjourned for seven days and, despite her attempts to secure support from Osborne, Carnell was forced to resign as Chief Minister before the vote was put to the Assembly. She was replaced by Gary Humphries. Osborne had a crucial role in determining Carnell's future, initially proposing an early election (which was outside the provisions of the ACT Constitution) to resolve the lack of confidence in Carnell.

In 2001, Osborne and Rugendyke defended their respective seats, but this time, on separate tickets. Both were not re-elected.

In July 2004 the Canberra Times claimed that he was considering running for that year's ACT election with the Liberal Party, but it did not run. He worked as community-relations officer for the Raiders for a time after leaving politics.