Gary Douglas Hardgrave (born 5 January 1960) is an Australian former politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007, representing the Liberal Party. He was a minister in the Howard government from 2001 to 2007, and later served as Administrator of Norfolk Island from 2014 to 2017.
Early life
Hardgrave was born on 5 January 1960 in Sydney, New South Wales, and was educated at Griffith University, Queensland. In the 1970s he began his career as a radio broadcaster, He contested the Division of Moreton successfully at the 1996 federal election against Labor incumbent Garrie Gibson, going on to retain the seat in 1998, 2001 and 2004. On 23 January 2007, Hardgrave was axed from the ministry and returned to the backbench. He lost his seat to Graham Perrett in the 2007 election.
Career after politics
In March 2008, Hardgrave returned to media and corporate activities. From January 2011, he hosted talk-back in Brisbane.
Since leaving Parliament, Hardgrave graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors' course and served on a variety of company and community boards including Brisbane Airport Corporation and TAFE Queensland. In January 2014, he left full-time radio but commenced a weekly column in the Queensland Sunday Mail newspaper before resigning media and corporate activities in June 2014.
On the advice of the Abbott government, Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove appointed Hardgrave as the 37th Administrator of the Australian External Territory of Norfolk Island. His term commenced on 1 July 2014, and he was Administrator when Norfolk Island lost its self-governing status.
He later went on to host a ‘Sky After Dark’ political opinion show on conservative television station Sky News Australia, where he is a regular critic of among other things, Labor Party MPs and action on climate change.
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