Robert Clark is the Member for Box Hill in the Victorian Parliament.
He is also the Attorney-General and Minister for Finance in the Victorian government.
From October 1999 until September 2001, he was Shadow Minister for Planning (including Major Projects) and Shadow Minister for WorkCover, from September 2001 to August 2002 was Shadow Treasurer, Shadow Minister for Finance and Shadow Minister for WorkCover and from August 2002 to November 2002 was Shadow Minister for Finance, Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Shadow Minister for WorkCover and Shadow Minister for Gaming. From November 2002 until December 2006 he was Shadow Treasurer.
From December 2006 until August 2007, he was Shadow Minister for Information and Communication Technology, until November 2009 was the Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources and Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, and until November 2010 was the Shadow Attorney-General. From November 2009 until November 2010, he was also the Shadow Minister for Finance.
Robert Clark has been a Member of Parliament since 1988, having first been elected for the electorate of Balwyn at the age of 31.
Following the abolition of the Balwyn electorate in a redivision of electorate boundaries in 1991, he was elected as Member for Box Hill in 1992 and re-elected in 1996, 1999, 2002, 2006 and 2010.
From 1988 to 1992, Robert Clark was a member of the all-party Economic and Budget Review Committee, and a member of the Treasury and Attorney-General’s Committees of the Parliamentary Liberal Party and then the Liberal-National Party Coalition.
In 1992, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Victorian Treasurer, Alan Stockdale. Following the 1996 election, when Alan Stockdale became Victoria’s (and the world’s) first Minister for Multimedia, Robert Clark was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary, Treasury and Multimedia, a position he held until the Coalition lost government in October 1999.
From 1992 to 1999 he also convened the Parliamentary Coalition’s Treasury and Finance Committee. He was a member of the Coalition’s Attorney-General’s Committee 1992-1999, Education Committee 1992-1996, Tertiary Education Committee 1996-1999 and Multimedia Committee 1996-1999.
From 2001 until 2006 he was a member of the all-party Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, and from 2007 to 2010 was the Deputy Chair of the Law Reform Committee and the Dispute Resolution Committee of the Victorian Parliament, and Deputy Chair of the Legislative Assembly’s Privileges Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Robert Clark was a solicitor practicing in commercial, financial and labour law. He attended St Albans High School and University High School before undertaking his tertiary education at Melbourne University, where he obtained a B.Com (Hons) in 1980, an LLB in 1982 and a BA in 1986.
At university, Robert Clark was active in the Melbourne University Liberal Club and the Australian Liberal Students’ Federation.
He was also Treasurer of the Melbourne University Students’ Representative Council in 1976-77. While Treasurer, he brought Supreme Court proceedings against the University, members of the SRC and members of the Australian Union of Students, alleging misspending of compulsorily collected student fees. His successes in these proceedings resulted in changes to the law relating to student unionism in Victoria.
Robert Clark joined the Liberal Party in 1976. He was President of the Forest Hill Young Liberals from 1986 to 1987, an Executive Member of the Victorian Young Liberal Movement in 1986 and Vice-Chairman of the Deakin Electorate Committee from 1986 to 1988. He has been a member of the Party’s Constitutional Committee since 1987.
Robert Clark is married with 2 children, and lives in Surrey Hills.
