Rob Hulls

Rob Hulls served one term in Federal Parliament from 1990–93 as the member for Kennedy, Queensland. He succeeded the long-standing National Party member Bob Katter Sr., who had retired from politics (he died just prior to the election).

In 1993, he was defeated by Bob Katter, the former member's son, who had been a minister in the Bjelke-Petersen, Ahern and Cooper ministries at state level in Queensland. The race was very close throughout, and was only decided on the eighth count when a Liberal candidate's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Katter.[1]

Rob Hulls left Queensland soon after the losing his Federal Parliament seat, and in 1994 on returning to Melbourne was appointed Chief of Staff to the Victorian Opposition Leader, Jim Kennan, former attorney-general, who resigned from State Parliament shortly afterwards. Rob Hulls stayed on as Chief of Staff under Kennan's replacement John Brumby, who was Premier from 2007–2010. Following his election to the State Parliament, in the lower-house seat of Niddrie, Rob Hulls' replacement as Brumby's Chief of Staff was Julia Gillard, who later in her own career became Australia's first female prime minister (2010–13).

In his state political career Rob Hulls held the offices of Attorney-General of Victoria; Minister for Manufacturing Industry and Minister for Racing from 1999–2002; Minister for WorkCover from 2002–2005; Minister for Planning January 2005 – December 2006; Minister for Racing from December 2006 – November 2010 and Minister for Industrial Relations from December 2002 – November 2010.

As attorney-general, Rob Hulls instigated significant changes to Victoria's legal system which saw the establishment of the state's first Charter of Human Rights and reform to Victoria's Upper House. He established special courts for Victoria's indigenous community and introduced an open tender process for applicants to Victoria's judiciary.

He was unsuccessful in a campaign to defrock the legal profession and ban the wearing of wigs in courts, a move that was actively opposed by the Victorian Bar Association. Rob Hulls was quoted as saying that "members of the legal profession could continue to wear wigs in the privacy of their homes if they so wished but the wearing of wigs by the legal profession in the 21st century was outdated and elitist".

He was appointed as deputy premier to John Brumby on 30 July 2007 after the retirement of John Thwaites, and retained the position as attorney-general until his party's defeat at the election on 27 November 2010.

On 27 January 2012, Hulls announced he was resigning from parliament. This triggered a by-election in the seat of Niddrie.[2]