Biography - Peter Lindsay MP

Townsville has been home to Peter and his wife Margaret for more than 40 years. Their two children, Mark and Kylie attended local schools and James Cook University.

Prior to entering the Australian Parliament, Peter had the privilege of representing the people of Aitkenvale and Mundingburra on the Townsville City Council for 11 years. He was the first Liberal Councillor ever to represent Division Nine. He was re-elected for his fifth term as the Federal Member for Herbert in November 2007.

Before entering politics, Peter ran his own electronics services business for 25 years after working as a broadcast engineer and production manager at the local television station. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Queensland.

During his distinguished parliamentary career Peter served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence in the last year of the Howard Government.

Peter takes a particular interest in defence and emerging communication and information technologies. Within the parliament he serves as Deputy Chair of the Presiding Officers Information Technology Advisory Group. He is also a member of the Standing Committee on Communications and the Joint Standing Committee on Public Works.

Peter has chaired the joint standing committee on electoral matters and several backbench committees. Peter is also an active participant in numerous Parliamentary Friendship Groups and serves as the Deputy Chair of the Pacific, Jordan, Laos and Thailand groups.

Peter is a keen ham-radio operator and admits to having had little time to indulge his passion while an MP. When only 19, he scrounged around and built his own television set using military radar electronics. A year later he was one of a group of four to be the first Australians to bounce radio signals off the moon.