Noel Hicks

Born in Adelaide, he was a plumber and road design draughtsman. Having moved to Broken Hill, he was mayor of Broken Hill City Council 1974–75 and 1976–77.

In 1980 he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the National Country member for Riverina, based on Broken Hill. He was the first non-Labor MP since Federation to represent Broken Hill in the Federal Parliament, but moved with his family to the larger town of Griffith the following year after committing to do so during the election campaign. At the Federal Election held in March 1983, despite defending a margin of only 0.5%, he retained the seat in the face of strong swings elsewhere to the eventual Hawke-Keating Labor Government.

Riverina was further enlarged in 1984, and renamed as the Division of Riverina-Darling. Hicks overcame another notional Labor majority, as well as former Country Party Member John Sullivan—now representing the Liberal Party—to win it. He was reelected from this seat in 1987 and 1990 against spirited Labor opposition.

Riverina-Darling was abolished in 1993, with Griffith and Wagga Wagga being combined in a recreated Riverina, while Broken Hill was transferred to the neighboring Division of Parkes. After declining a Liberal Party proposal to move to the Senate, Hicks opted to contest the new Riverina, now a safe conservative seat, despite some commentators' predictions that traditional Liberal voters in Wagga Wagga would hesitate to vote for a Nationals man from Griffith. However, he won the seat easily, relegating Liberal candidate future-Senator Bill Heffernan to third in the count behind the ALP candidate, former Wagga Wagga Mayor Pat Brassil.

He held this seat for two more terms until retiring in 1998.[1]