caption predecessor parliament successor birth_place constituency_mp nationality party office birth_date term_start spouse image article_title term_end name occupation
scholes in 1983 hubert opperman jim cope australian gavan o'connor sir billy snedden melbourne , victoria corio australian australian labor party 16th speaker of the australian house of representatives 7 june 1931 22 july 1967 27 february 1975 della k robinson gordon scholes hd-sc-98-07512 . jpg gordon scholes
 8 february 1993 16 february 1976 gordon scholes councillor
gordon scholes

gordon glen denton scholes ao -lrb- born 7 june 1931 -rrb- is a former australian politician and speaker of the australian house of representatives .
scholes was born in melbourne , the son of thomas glen denton scholes and his wife mary louisa o'brien .
he was the victorian amateur heavyweight boxing champion in 1949 .
he joined the australian labor party in 1955 and was president of the geelong alp branch from 1962 to 1964 .
he was president of the geelong trades hall council from 1965 to 1966 , and a councillor of the geelong city council from 1965 to 1967 .
scholes was the labor party candidate in the division of corio , centred on geelong , in the 1966 election , and was defeated by incumbent liberal sir hubert opperman .
however , opperman resigned a few months after the election to become australia 's first high commissioner to malta .
scholes won the seat at the ensuing by-election on a swing of 11 percent .
he won the seat in his own right at the 1969 election .
scholes served as speaker from 27 february 1975 until 16 february 1976 , a period taken up almost entirely by the 1975 australian constitutional crisis .
on 11 november 1975 , following the dismissal of the prime minister , gough whitlam and the appointment of the leader of the opposition , malcolm fraser , as caretaker prime minister , the house of representatives passed a motion expressing lack of confidence in fraser 's government .
as speaker , scholes was charged with conveying that information to the governor-general sir john kerr and to request kerr to dismiss fraser and re-appoint whitlam .
scholes made an appointment to meet kerr at 4:45 pm .
however , by the time he arrived , kerr had already dissolved the parliament on fraser 's advice , which was something fraser had undertaken to do once he had secured passage of the supply bills through the senate .
scholes later accused kerr of bad faith for making an appointment to receive the speaker , and then not waiting to hear from him before dissolving parliament .
scholes was minister for defence in the first hawke ministry from march 1983 to december 1984 and then minister for territories until july 1987 .
he retired before the 1993 election .
he is an honorary member of the geelong philatelic society .
