Bernie Finn

Finn was originally a member of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP). In 1980, aged 19, he was the DLP candidate for the federal seat of Corangamite.[2] Soon after, he left the DLP and joined the Liberal Party. In 1983 he was the Liberal candidate for the seat of Burke.[3]

Finn was the Member for the District of Tullamarine from 1992 until 1999 when he lost power in the Steve Bracks led landslide victory over the Kennett Liberal Government.

Finn has been the number one candidate on the Liberal Party of Australia ticket in the Western Metropolitan Region since 2006. He was first elected to the Legislative Council in 2006 and re-elected in 2010 and 2014.[1] As of November 2014, Finn serves as Member for Western Metropolitan Region alongside Cesar Melhem and Khalil Eideh from the Labor Party, Colleen Hartland from the Greens and Rachel Carling-Jenkins from the Australian Conservatives.[4]

During the period of the Baillieu and Napthine governments, Finn served as Chairman of the Victorian Parliament's Electoral Matters Committee.[5]

Finn currently serves on the Coalition frontbench as the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for autism spectrum disorder, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Electoral Integrity and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Melbourne's West.[1]

In 2018 Finn was involved in a controversy where he returned to vote on a bill despite having been granted a ‘pair’ to be absent from voting due to religious observation.[6]

Finn has drawn controversy for his political views. He has criticised abortion and women's rights, and been rebuked for his remarks that rape victims should not be allowed an abortion; former Premier Denis Napthine, who like Finn voted against the 2008 abortion bill,[7] called Finn's views "inappropriate."[8][9] Finn is a strong opponent of same sex marriage, adoption,[10][11] and IVF. Finn suggested during the 2012 Australian Open that some gay activists had "embarked on a program of rainbow fascism."[12][13][14]

Finn was a critic of the federal government's carbon pricing scheme, stating in the Victorian Parliament in 2013 that "there has been no global warming for 17 years". He has attacked the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, as well as reports on the subject in the British newspaper The Guardian.[15] He has claimed that global warming is an invention of the "international left", suggesting that "it raised a few dollars and promoted its own political interests. It came up with a thing called global warming", which he labelled "nonsense". He went on to say that "we have to come to a conclusion that climate change is not so much a scientific thing as it is a political thing". Finn also told Parliament that "This is a con; the whole thing is a con. Today we are in the Parliament of Victoria wasting our time on something that is largely an invention of the left".[16]

Finn supports reintroducing capital punishment. In 2018, Finn said he believes "if two or three drug lords were executed, others would get the message. They should be disqualified from breathing the same oxygen that we do."[17]

In a June 2020 panel discussion on Sky News Australia, where Finn was critical of the behaviour of people engaging in street protests in the US over the death of George Floyd, he called presidential candidate Joe Biden "a silly old duffer" and said "If Donald Trump does not prevail America is finished." [18]

Before entering Parliament, Finn was a small businessman, broadcaster and a media and ministerial adviser to Chris Pearce.[1] He is married with six children.[19]

• Official website
• Parliamentary voting record of Bernie Finn at Victorian Parliament Tracker