Rick Colless
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The Honourable Rick Colless HD App Sci(Agric) MLC |
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|---|---|
| Member of Legislative Council of New South Wales | |
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Assumed office 30 August 2000 |
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| Deputy Opposition Whip in the Legislative Council | |
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Assumed office 27 August 2002 |
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| Preceded by | Richard Bull |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
12 November 1952 Tamworth, New South Wales |
| Political party | The Nationals |
| Spouse(s) | Geraldine Faith Barton (nee Porter) |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | NSW Parliament website |
Richard Hargrave Colless (born 12 November 1952) is an Australian politician and The Nationals member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Colless has been a member of the Council since 30 August 2000 and is serving his third term in that Council. He is currently the Parliamentary Secretary for Natural Resources and Regional Planning.
Colless was born in Tamworth to Kenneth Hargrave Colless and Yvonne Tipling and was raised on a rural property at Bundarra, near Inverell. He undertook primary school by correspondence from the Blackfriars Correspondence School in Sydney; and secondary education at Tamworth and Singleton High Schools. Colless won a cadetship with the Soil Conservation Service of the New South Wales, that led to studies at Hawkesbury Agricultural College. Working for the Soil Conservation Service for the next 26 years, he worked in various country towns including Henty, Cowra, Goulburn, Gunnedah and Inverell where he settled in 1987.
In 1991, he was elected to Inverell Shire Council and served three terms as a councillor and became its mayor in 1999.
He became the Chairman of the Inverell Branch of the National Party of Australia in 1996 and served in that role until 1999. He became Chairman of the New England Electorate Council in 1999 and served a term during 2000 on the Central Executive of the National Party.
He was appointed to the Legislative Council on 30 August 2000 following the resignation of the National Party MLC Richard Bull. He was reelected in the 2007 and 2011 NSW elections.
Colless served as Chief Whip for The Nationals in the Upper House from 2002 until 2015, chaired the Standing Committee on State Development from 2011 to 2015 and was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary for Natural Resources and Regional Planning from March 2015. He has also served on a number of other committees during his parliamentary term.
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