Bruce Flegg

Dr Bruce Flegg
Minister for Housing and Public Works of Queensland
In office 3 April 2012 – 14 November 2012
Premier	Campbell Newman
Preceded by	Karen Struthers (Housing) Simon Finn (Government Services)
Succeeded by	Tim Mander
Leader of the Queensland Liberal Party
In office 7 August 2006 – 4 December 2007
Preceded by	Bob Quinn
Succeeded by	Mark McArdle
Member of the Queensland Parliament for Moggill
In office 7 February 2004 – 31 January 2015
Preceded by	David Watson
Succeeded by	Christian Rowan
Personal details
Born	(1954-03-10) 10 March 1954 Sydney
Political party	Liberal National Party

Dr Bruce Stephen Flegg (born 10 March 1954, in Sydney) is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 2004 to 2015, representing the electorate of Moggill in south-western Brisbane for the Liberal Party of Australia and its successor the Liberal National Party. He was the leader of the state Liberal Party from 2006 to 2007 and served as Minister for Housing and Public Works in the Newman government from April to November 2012.

Flegg was born in Sydney and was a general practitioner before entering politics.^[1] At the 1993 federal election he contested the seat of Dickson which was ultimately delayed to a supplementary election due to the death of a candidate, but was defeated by the Labor candidate, Michael Lavarch.^[2] He was elected to the Legislative Assembly at the 2004 state election, replacing former Liberal leader David Watson in the safe Liberal seat of Moggill. He was immediately elected deputy leader of the Liberal Party upon his election, and succeeded Bob Quinn as leader in 2006. He had only been Liberal leader for a number of days when then-Premier Peter Beattie called the 2006 state election, which the conservative parties lost decisively. He faced wide criticism in the wake of the election defeat regarding his performance during the campaign, and faced speculation of a challenge from rival Tim Nicholls. Nicholls was unable to gain sufficient support to oust Flegg in a closely divided caucus, but following ongoing tension, Flegg resigned as leader on 4 December 2007 and was succeeded by compromise candidate Mark McArdle.^[3]

Flegg was not part of the initial shadow ministry following the merger of the Liberal Party and National Party to form the Liberal National Party in 2008, but was subsequently appointed Shadow Minister for Education in 2009.^[1][3] He was appointed Minister for Housing and Public Works following the party's landslide victory at the 2012 state election; however, he resigned in November following a series of controversies surrounding his ministerial dealings with his lobbyist son and allegations he had moonlighted as a GP while a minister.

In October 2014, the LNP State Executive refused to support Dr Flegg's party preselection as a candidate for the January 2015 election, instead choosing to replace him with former AMA President Dr. Christian Rowan.^[4] He remained an LNP Member of Parliament until the January 2015 election when he did not re-contest his seat. Before Flegg's disendorsement, Moggill was suggested as a possible safe seat for Premier Campbell Newman to move to from his marginal seat of Ashgrove.^[5]

He has four sons, one of whom, Jonathon Flegg, ran unsuccessfully for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly beachside seat of Coogee in 2007.^[6]

References

External links

• Parliamentary biography
• Official site