Ian Sinclair

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 Harold Holt, John McEwen, John Gorton and William McMahon. Sinclair was elected deputy leader of his party in 1971. 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 the only other surviving Country/Nationals MP elected in the 1960s,^[1] 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.^[2]

Early life[edit]

Sinclair was born in Sydney on 10 June 1929. He was the son of Gertrude Hazel (née Smith) and George McCahon Sinclair.^[3] 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.^[4]


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.^[3]


Sinclair married Margaret Anne Tarrant in 1956, with whom he had one son and two daughters. She died of brain cancer in December 1967.^[5][6] He remarried on 14 February 1970 to Rosemary Fenton, who had been Miss Australia in 1960; they had one son together.^[3] His daughter Fiona married Liberal politician Peter King.^[7]

After politics[edit]

In January 2001, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).^[47] As of 2009, Sinclair was the President of AUSTCARE, an international, non-profit, independent aid organisation.^[48] On 1 March 2000, Sinclair became the inaugural chairman of the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR), a non-profit organisation which issues grants to regional communities. He retired on 30 June 2019 and was succeeded by Tim Fairfax.^[49] Sinclair also served for several years as the Honorary President of the Scout Association of Australia, New South Wales Branch, retiring in 2019. He received Scouts’ National Presidents Award on World Scout Day 2020.