Rob Johnson (Australian politician)

Johnson was born in London, England. At the age of 35, he was elected as a councillor for the London Borough of Sutton and subsequently became Mayor.^[2]

Soon after emigrating to Australia in 1988, he was elected as a councillor to the City of Wanneroo in 1991. The following year he was elected Mayor.^[2]

Johnson was elected as the member for Whitford in 1993 and, following a re-distribution of boundaries, was re-elected for the seat of Hillarys in 1996.^[3]

From December 1999 until February 2001, Johnson served in the Court Coalition government, as Minister for Works, Services, Citizenship and Multicultural Interests.^[2] He became Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Road Safety with the return to power of the Coalition in September 2008.^[3]

Johnson supports reintroducing the Death Penalty, in 2007 he lobbied the Western Australia liberal party to adopt a policy on capital punishment.^[4]

In his first two years as minister in the new Barnett government, Johnson introduced 16 bills into the Legislative Assembly.^[5] Many of them were controversial and high-profile,^[6] including increasing the impounding period of a vehicle for anyone convicted of a "hoon" offence.^[7] Other measures were to ensure motorists with a blood alcohol reading of 0.08 or above lost their licence immediately at the roadside,^[8] that all revenue from speed and red light cameras would go to road safety projects,^[9] and a proposal for Australia's first online sex offender register.^[10]

Investigations following a major bushfire in the Perth hills in February 2011, with the loss of 71 homes,^[11][12] and another in the Margaret River area, resulted in severe criticism of Johnson, and he was removed from the Emergency Services portfolio.^[13]

In May 2012, federal Liberal MP for Canning, Don Randall, attacked Johnson in Federal Parliament, labelling him bumbling, weak and incompetent.^[6] In turn, Johnson called for Randall to be sacked over the misuse of travel expenses.^[14]

After a cabinet reshuffle by premier Colin Barnett in June 2012, Johnson was removed from the Police and Road Safety portfolio.^[3][15][16] At the 2013 Western Australian state election, he was re-elected to the seat of Hillarys.^[17]

After arriving in Australia, Johnson started a family business incorporating an investment firm and a national computer distributorship.^[2]

He is a former chair of Radio Lollipop (Australia), a charity that cares for children in hospital.^[2]