# Santo Santoro

Santo Santoro (born 27 April 1956) is an Australian former politician and a former deputy leader of the Liberal Party in Queensland. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1989 to 2001; and a member of the Australian Senate from 2002 to 2007, representing the state of Queensland. He resigned from John Howard's ministry and from the Senate in the wake of a number of breaches of the Ministerial Code of Conduct and of the Register of Senators' Interests. He now works as a lobbyist.

## Early life

Born in Sicily, Italy in 1956, Santoro emigrated to Australia with his family at the age of 5. He was educated at Marist College Rosalie in Brisbane before attending the University of Queensland, where he was awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Economics with honours.

## Queensland state politics

Santoro was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland as Liberal member for Merthyr in Brisbane from 13 May 1989 until 19 September 1992. He first contested the seat at the 1986 state election against Liberal-turned-National incumbent and Transport Minister Don Lane, and finished third on the primary vote. However, he was only 30 votes behind the Labor challenger; had 30 Australian Democrats voters preferenced him ahead of Labor, he would have overtaken Labor for second place and defeated Lane on Labor preferences.
Lane was forced out of politics in January 1989 after admitting to rorting funds. Santoro then contested a by-election in May and was elected on National preferences. The by-election was the first sign of serious trouble for the National government, which was hemorrhaging support in the wake of the Fitzgerald Inquiry. At the state election later that year, Santoro was almost swept up in the massive Labor wave that swept through Brisbane; he only held on to his seat by 164 votes after all preferences were distributed, and was one of only five Liberals elected from Brisbane.
Merthyr was abolished in 1992, and Santoro followed most of his constituents into the re-created seat of Clayfield, which he held from 19 September 1992 until he was defeated on 17 February 2001 by Liddy Clark.
Santoro was the deputy leader of the State Liberal Party from 1992 to 1995. From 26 February 1996 to 26 June 1998, he was the State Minister for Training and Industrial Relations.

## Australian Senate

On 29 October 2002, Santoro was selected by the Queensland Parliament to replace Liberal Party of Australia Senator John Herron, who had resigned from the Senate to become Australia's Ambassador to Ireland.
As a senator, Santoro was a strident critic of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, using parliamentary privilege in 2003 to accuse the national broadcaster of "sloppy and shoddy" journalism, and disloyalty to Australian soldiers serving in Iraq, after an internal memo to ABC news staff instructed them to refrain from referring to soldiers as "our troops".
Santoro was sworn in as Federal Minister for Ageing in John Howard's government on 27 January 2006.

## Share trading scandal and resignation

On 14 March 2007, Senator Santoro disclosed that he had breached the government's ministerial code of conduct by holding shares in CBio, a biotechnology company related to his portfolio. Santoro claimed he had received the shares in January 2006, had failed to declare or divest them when he became Minister for Ageing, until he sold them in January 2007 after realising three months earlier that there might be a conflict of interest. Initially Prime Minister John Howard and other government ministers defended the breach on the grounds that it was inadvertent.
On 20 March, Santoro announced he would resign from the Senate, and federal politics altogether. This meant that he had served as a Commonwealth Minister without ever facing election. He was replaced in the Senate by Sue Boyce.

## Later career

Santo Santoro was federal Liberal Party vice-president until resigning in 2014 when he was forced to choose between that and being a paid lobbyist. He owns Santo Santoro Consulting and is registered as a lobbyist on both the Queensland and federal registers.
In 2010, it was reported that Santoro was considering a run for Italian politics.
However his move into Italian politics never eventuated.