Mark Anthony James Vaile (born 18 April 1956) is an Australian former politician who served as the 12th deputy prime minister of Australia and the leader of the National Party of Australia from 2005 to 2007, during the final years of the Howard government. Vaile is currently a non-executive director of a number of public listed corporations.
Early life
Vaile was born in Sydney and worked as a farm machinery retailer and stock and station and real-estate agent before entering politics. He was a member of the Greater Taree City Council 1985–93, including three years as deputy mayor.
Parliamentary career
Vaile was a member of the Australian House of Representatives between March 1993 and July 2008, representing the Division of Lyne in New South Wales. In his first bid for the seat, in the 1993 election, Vaile led over the Liberals by only 233 votes on the third count, despite the seat's long history as a National stronghold. Labor had taken a large first-count lead which it held for most of the night, but Vaile won after Liberal preferences flowed overwhelmingly to him. However, had 120 votes gone the other way, the Liberals would have taken the seat. Vaile was able to revert the seat to its traditional status as a safe National seat in 1996, and he would go on to hold the seat without serious difficulty from then onward.
He was Assistant National Party Whip 1994–96 and National Party Whip 1996–97. In 1997 he was appointed Minister for Transport and Regional Development, and in 1998 he became Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. In July 1999, following the resignation of Tim Fischer and the election of John Anderson as National Party leader, he was elected the party's Deputy Leader and became Minister for Trade. When John Anderson resigned in 2005, Vaile was elected Leader unopposed. On 6 July 2005 he was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister.
Since Vaile took on the leadership of the Nationals in 2005, there were increasing suggestions for Vaile to take on a domestic portfolio as the trade portfolio requires frequent overseas travel. Throughout 2006, Vaile's position in the trade portfolio came under increasing scrutiny due to his handling of the AWB kickbacks scandal and Australia's worsening trade performance. He also faced the difficult task of placating his back bench, with Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce having crossed the floor on more than one occasion. On 24 September 2006 he switched portfolios with deputy Nationals leader Warren Truss and became Minister for Transport and Regional Services. His new position had a greater focus on regional Australia, the Nationals party's main constituency.
Following the coalition's defeat at the 2007 federal election, Vaile resigned his position as Nationals leader and moved to the backbench. His resignation surprised his colleagues as he had been expected to be re-elected unopposed following the election. On 19 July 2008 Vaile announced his forthcoming resignation from Parliament; he submitted it on 30 July. The ensuing by-election was won by independent Rob Oakeshott, the former state member for Port Macquarie and a former Vaile staffer.
Post-parliament career
In September 2008, Vaile was appointed to the board of Virgin Australia Holdings. He was replaced by Angus Houston in December 2018.
Vaile is also the independent chairman and a non-executive director of Whitehaven Coal, non-executive director of Palisade Investment Partners, a specialist independent infrastructure manager; a non-executive director of Hostplus, a non-executive director of Servcorp; a director of the Singapore-listed Stamford Land Corporation; and Chairman of 123 Childcare, an education provider in the People's Republic of China.
In June 2021 it was announced that Vaile would succeed Paul Jeans as Chancellor of the University of Newcastle. However following a backlash over his links to the coal industry, Vaile did not take up the post.
Honours
On 1 January 2001, Vaile was awarded the Centenary Medal for "service as Minister for Trade". In 2012 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the Parliament of Australia, through support for rural and regional communities, to the pursuit of global trade and investment opportunities, and to the citizens of the Taree region.
Personal
A Roman Catholic, Vaile is married with three children. He lives on a rural property outside Taree, New South Wales.