Luke Gosling
Luke John Gosling is an Australian politician and a retired Australian Army soldier. Gosling has been the Australian Labor Party member for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Solomon in the Northern Territory since the 2016 federal election.
Background
Gosling is the eldest of eight children. He has a Bachelor of Arts in history and politics from the University of New South Wales.Gosling served in the Australian Defence Force for 13 years in the Parachute Infantry, Commandos and Defence Cooperation Programs. He served in Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Timor-Leste.
Gosling worked abroad in countries such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Albania and Timor-Leste after leaving the ADF. He co-founded Life, Love and Health, a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation, an Australian charity for Timor-Leste. For his work with the NGO, he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2006 regarding relief work in the 2006 humanitarian crisis. He received a Presidential Medal of Merit from the President of Timor-Leste in 2009.
Gosling established the Remote Area Health Corps in 2008. He has worked at Saint Vincent de Paul as a volunteer after serving as the Darwin CEO of the organisation.
Political career
2013 election
Gosling ran for the Darwin-based seat of Solomon as a Labor candidate at the 2013 federal election, but was narrowly defeated by one-term Country Liberal incumbent Natasha Griggs. Gosling received a 48.6 percent two-party vote after gaining a 0.4-point two-party swing.2016 election
Gosling ran for Solomon again at the 2016 federal election with a far better result − a 56 percent two-party vote after gaining a 7.4-point two-party swing − easily defeating Griggs. He is the second opposition member to hold Solomon.A MediaReach seat-level opinion poll of 513 voters in Solomon conducted one week before the Saturday 2 July 2016 election surprisingly found Labor's Gosling heavily leading two-term Country Liberal incumbent Natasha Griggs 61–39 on the two-party vote from a large 12.4-point swing.
Gosling made national headlines during the election campaign by using photographs from his past army service in his campaign materials. The Australian Defence Force issued a directive to retract any advertising showing him in military uniform. Gosling defended use of the photographs, stating the claimed restrictions on their use did not apply as he was "no longer a member of Defence".
Personal life
Gosling is married and has two children.Honours and awards
Gosling has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for development work and fundraising for Timor-Leste, as well as the Timor-Leste Presidential Medal of Merit in 2009.| Medal of the Order of Australia | 2006 | |
| Australian Service Medal | ||
| Australian Defence Medal | ||
| Medal of Merit | 2009 |