Ian McCahon Sinclair (born 10 June 1929) is an Australian former politician who served as leader of the National Party from 1984 to 1989. He was a government minister under six prime ministers, and later Speaker of the House of Representatives from March to August 1998.
Sinclair was born in Sydney and studied law at the University of Sydney. He later bought a farming property near Tamworth. Sinclair was elected to parliament in 1963, and added to the ministry in 1965 as part of the Menzies Government. Over the following six years, he held various portfolios under four other prime ministers. Sinclair was elected deputy leader of his party in 1971, under Anthony. He was a senior member of the Fraser government, spending periods as Minister for Primary Industry (1975–1979), Minister for Communications (1980–1982), and Minister for Defence (1982–1983). In 1984, Sinclair replaced Anthony as leader of the Nationals. He led the party to two federal elections, in 1984 and 1987, but was replaced by Charles Blunt in 1989. Sinclair was father of the parliament from 1990 until his retirement at the 1998 election. He spent his last months in parliament as Speaker of the House of Representatives, following the sudden resignation of Bob Halverson; he is the only member of his party to have held the position. He also served as co-chair of the 1998 constitutional convention, alongside Barry Jones.
Along with Peter Nixon, Sinclair is one of two Country/Nationals MPs elected in the 1960s still alive, and he is the last surviving minister who served in the Menzies Government and the First Holt Ministry. He is entitled to the Right Honourable prefix as one of the few surviving Australian members of the Privy Council of the UK.
Early life
Sinclair was born in Sydney on 10 June 1929. He was the son of Gertrude Hazel (née Smith) and George McCahon Sinclair. His father was a chartered accountant who also served as deputy mayor of Ku-ring-gai Council, chairman of Knox Grammar School, and an elder of the Presbyterian Church.
Sinclair attended Knox Grammar before going on to the University of Sydney, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1949 and Bachelor of Laws in 1952. He served in the No. 22 Squadron RAAF from 1950 to 1952, as part of the Citizen Air Force. Sinclair served his articles of clerkship with Norton Smith & Co., but did not pursue a legal career. He instead took up a grazing property near Bendemeer and set up the Sinclair Pastoral Company, of which he became managing director. He was a director of the Farmers and Graziers' Co-operative Limited from 1962 to 1965.
Sinclair married Margaret Anne Tarrant in 1956, with whom he had one son and two daughters. She died of brain cancer in December 1967. He remarried on 14 February 1970 to Rosemary Fenton, who had been Miss Australia in 1960; they had one son together. His daughter Fiona married Liberal politician Peter King.
Political career
A member of the Country Party, Sinclair was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1961. He resigned in order to seek election to the House of Representatives at the 1963 federal election, retaining the Division of New England for the Country Party after the retirement of David Drummond.
Government minister
In 1965, Sinclair was appointed Minister for Social Services in the Menzies Government, replacing Hugh Roberton. He stood for the deputy leadership of the Country Party after the 1966 federal election, but was defeated by Doug Anthony. In 1968, he became Minister for Shipping and Transport in the Gorton government. When Country Party leader John McEwen retired in February 1971, Anthony was elected as his replacement and Sinclair defeated Peter Nixon for the deputy leadership. He was appointed Minister for Primary Industry. A month later, William McMahon replaced John Gorton as Liberal leader and prime minister. McMahon wanted Sinclair to become Minister for Foreign Affairs, but for various reasons had to keep him in the primary industry portfolio and appoint Les Bury as foreign minister instead. Sinclair did later serve as acting foreign minister in Bury's absence.
In 1973, Sinclair was one of the six Country MPs to vote in favour of John Gorton's motion calling for the decriminalisation of homosexuality. After spending the three years of the Whitlam Labor government in opposition, he again became Minister for Primary Industry in 1975, in the Fraser government. In 1977, Sinclair was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.