Bernie Finn

For the football player, see Bernie Finn (American football).

Bernie Finn MLC
Member of the Victorian Legislative Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 November 2006
Personal details
Born	(1961-04-14) 14 April 1961
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia
Occupation	Businessman, broadcaster, ministerial advisor
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	www.berniefinn.com

Bernard (Bernie) Thomas Christopher Finn (born 14 April 1961) is a member of the Victorian Legislative Council representing the Western Metropolitan Region since the election of November 2006. He was previously the member for the electoral district of Tullamarine in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from October 1992 until September 1999.

Political career

Finn was originally a member of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP). In 1980, aged 19, he was the DLP candidate for the federal seat of Corangamite. Soon after, he left the DLP and joined the Liberal Party. In 1983 he was the Liberal candidate for the seat of Burke.

Finn has been the number one candidate on the Liberal Party of Australia ticket in the Western Metropolitan Region since 2006. He was first elected to the Legislative Council in 2006 and re-elected in 2010 and 2014. As of November 2014, Finn serves as Member for Western Metropolitan Region alongside Cesar Melhem and Khalil Eideh from the Australian Labor Party, Colleen Hartland from the Australian Greens and Rachel Carling-Jenkins from the DLP.

During the period of the Baillieu and Napthine governments, Finn served as Chairman of the Victorian Parliament's Electoral Matters Committee.

Finn currently serves on the Coalition frontbench as the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Electoral Integrity and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Melbourne's West.

Views

Finn has drawn controversy for his political views. He has criticised abortion and women's rights, and been rebuked for his remarks that rape victims should not be allowed an abortion; former Premier Denis Napthine who like Finn voted against the 2008 abortion bill has called Finn's views "inappropriate." Finn is a strong opponent of same sex marriage, adoption, and IVF. Finn suggested during the 2012 Australian Open that some gay activists had "embarked on a program of rainbow fascism."

Finn is a critic of carbon pricing, stating in the Victorian Parliament in 2013 that "there has been no global warming for 17 years". He has attacked the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth and contemporary reports in the British newspaper The Guardian.

Finn has also suggested that climate change is an invention of the "international left" suggesting that "it raised a few dollars and promoted its own political interests. It came up with a thing called global warming" which he labelled "nonsense" and stated that "we have to come to a conclusion that climate change is not so much a scientific thing as it is a political thing". Finn also told Parliament that "This is a con; the whole thing is a con. Today we are in the Parliament of Victoria wasting our time on something that is largely an invention of the left"

Personal life

Before entering Parliament, Finn was a small businessman, broadcaster and a media and ministerial adviser to Chris Pearce. He is married with six children.

External links

• Official website
• Bernie Finn and his "crazy mates" named in leaked tape
• State MP Bernie Finn says there is no acceptable reason for abortion
• Liberal MP Bernie Finn wants death penalty for drug lords but victims say don't execute

Victorian Legislative Assembly
Preceded by Seat created	Member for Tullamarine 1992–1999	Succeeded by Liz Beattie