Senate
Richard Colbeck
Richard Colbeck is a Liberal Party of Australia senator for Tasmania. First elected 4 February 2002.
- 2002 Entered federal parliament
- 2015 Became tourism minister
- 2016 Lost Senate seat, left parliament
- 2018 Returned to Senate
- 2019 Became aged care minister
- Liberal Party of Australia
- Out of this seat
What do they focus on?
Not enough tracked speeches or amendments to say yet.
Bars show tracked speeches and amendments by policy area.
How do they vote?
Share of recorded votes on the same side as each party's majority.
647 tracked votes while with Liberal.
How do they compare?
- Years in parliament i Total time served across every stint in either chamber, up to the end of the tracked record. 22.8 yrs 0.2 avg 8.5 yrs 33.3
- Votes against their party i Recorded votes cast against their own party's majority side. The average is across party members only. 3 avg 0.6 26
- Bills introduced i Bills they introduced to Parliament, counted across the tracked record. 2 avg 2.8 46
- Amendments sponsored i Amendments to bills they put forward during debate, counted across the tracked record. 1 avg 7.9 226
The marker starts at their party’s position and shifts only for floor-crossings towards a neighbouring party. No topic strip is shown because their economic, social and environment votes followed the party line.
What have they done lately?
In the most recent coverage, Colbeck spoke on income-tax reform on 24 June 2026, opposing it as a tax increase on investments that would make saving for a home harder. The tracked bill record says he voted No on second reading (carried); it does not record a final-passage vote. On 29 June, he voted No when the Senate passed workplace-relations legislation, which carried 31–25. In May, he spoke against competition-law changes and voted Aye on calls for a Senate inquiry and sunset and anti-retrospectivity safeguards; those votes were defeated.
When do they vote against their party?
3 times across 647 tracked votes. Most recently:
- 01 Dec 2022 Restrict territory euthanasia laws
- 01 Dec 2022 Call for tighter assisted-dying drug controls
- 24 Nov 2022 Senate voted on the bill's second reading
What do they say in debate?
21 tracked speeches across 18 bills.
- 10 backing a bill
- 1 with reservations
- 9 against
- 1 no clear position
Go deeper
Every figure links to a cited page.
About these numbers
Based on 766 tracked bills from the 47th and 48th Parliaments, current to 6 July 2026. This is a sample of parliamentary activity, not the complete record.
Career markers come from dated public records. Voting figures use division lists only. For party members, the left-to-right marker begins at the party position. It moves only when the member votes against that party and on the same side as a neighbouring party; other cross-party combinations do not affect it. Independents and minor-party members are placed by their votes in divisions where the Greens and the Coalition took opposite sides. If this position differs from a member’s broader public politics, a note appears below the strip.