David Gillespie (Australian politician)

Gillespie was born in Canberra and educated at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview. He was a gastroenterologist for twenty years and, up until the 2013 election, was the director of physician training at Port Macquarie Base Hospital.^[1]

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Gillespie contested the seat of Lyne for the first time in 2010. While he lost to the incumbent, National-turned-independent Rob Oakeshott, he achieved an 11-point swing in his favour. Following Oakeshott's retirement at the 2013 federal election, Gillespie contested the seat again and won it resoundingly. During Oakeshott's tenure, Lyne remained a comfortably safe Nationals seat in a traditional two-party matchup with Labor, so it had been expected that the seat would revert to the Nationals once Oakeshott retired.^[2]

Turnbull government

After the re-election of the Turnbull government at the 2016 federal election, Gillespie was appointed Assistant Minister for Rural Health in a ministerial reshuffle.^[3] He was promoted to Assistant Minister for Health in a subsequent rearrangement of the ministry in January 2017.^[4] He was instead made Assistant Minister for Children and Families in December 2017.^[5]

In 2015, Gillespie argued that politicians who represent electorates larger than 10,000 square kilometres (such as his own) should receive additional expense payments.^[6]

In February 2018, Gillespie was briefly a candidate to replace Barnaby Joyce as National Party leader.^[7] After finding a lack of support for his candidacy within the party room, he withdrew from the race and endorsed Michael McCormack, the only other announced candidate.^[8]

Gillespie was not retained in the ministry when Scott Morrison replaced Turnbull as prime minister in August 2018. Gillespie said he was "disappointed but it is a very competitive space, and the reshuffle is a reflection of how much talent we have". He also stated that "the general electorate was pretty disgusted with all the factional wars that we saw played out in public".^[9]

Morrison government

Following the resignation of Bridget McKenzie, Gillespie stood unsuccessfully for the deputy leadership of the National Party in February 2020. He was defeated by David Littleproud, with Keith Pitt also running. In the lead-up to the vote, Gillespie criticised party leader Michael McCormack's lack of engagement with the national media. McCormack defeated Barnaby Joyce in a leadership ballot, and Gillespie subsequently stated that "the leader has our full support" and that another challenge to McCormack's leadership was unlikely.^[10] In 2021, Barnaby Joyce successfully challenged McCormack for the National Party leadership.

In the cabinet reshuffle in late June 2021, Gillespie was appointed as the Minister for Regional Health.^[11] He held the position until the Coalition's defeat at the 2022 federal election.^[12]

Gillespie came under scrutiny after the High Court ruling in the Bob Day case. In April 2017, the High Court found that, under section 44(v) of the Australian Constitution, Senator Bob Day had not been eligible to hold public office because of an indirect pecuniary relationship with the Australian government. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) opposition and some community groups believed that Gillespie also had an indirect financial relationship with the federal government, in that he owned a suburban shopping complex in Port Macquarie which leased a premises to an Australia Post licensee.^[13] In July 2017, the ALP launched a High Court challenge to Gillespie's eligibility as an MP. The case was formally brought by Peter Alley, the ALP candidate for Gillespie's seat of Lyne at the 2016 federal election.^[13] Gillespie sold his interest in the shopping complex in early 2018, which would ensure his eligibility in a by-election if the court ruled that he was ineligible at the time of the 2016 election.^[14] On 21 March 2018, the seven members of the High Court determined unanimously that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the case, unless the matter was referred to it by parliament.^[15]

Gillespie is married to Charlotte and they have three children. The family lives at Sancrox, west of Port Macquarie.^[9] He is a Roman Catholic.^[16]