Robert Knight

Knight was a park ranger by trade, but made the decision to enter politics before the 2001 Election , gaining Australian Labor Party pre-selection to challenge sitting Country Liberal Party member Tim Baldwin in the newly-created seat of Daly. Baldwin held the seat by a significant margin and ultimately retained the seat with little difficulty, with both Baldwin and Knight suffering slight swings against them in favour of minor party candidates.

Knight continued to maintain an interest in a political career after his 2001 defeat, and visited the remote communities that make up the Daly electorate many times over the next four years. He once again attempted to gain pre-selection to contest Daly in the lead-up to the 2005 Election against new Country Liberal Party candidate Debbi Aloisi (Baldwin having retired at the election) and was ultimately successful. While most commentators did not write him off entirely, he was not widely expected to win the seat. However, Knight defied all expectations on election day, receiving a massive and nearly unprecedented electoral swing in his favour of more than 30%. This saw Knight comfortably defeat Aloisi and become one of the first non-incumbent members to claim victory on election night. Despite the size of his victory, however, Knight has been a somewhat low-profile backbencher since his election.

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Robert Knight