Bob Day - Misplaced Pages

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Robert (Bob) John Day AO (born 5 July 1952) is a businessman in South Australia. Now a millionaire, he is a founder of various residential building companies. He is a former Liberal Party and current Family First Party political candidate, and is the federal chairman of the Family First Party.

Career

He was a founder of Homestead Homes and Home Australia, which now also owns Collier Homes in Western Australia, Newstart Homes in Queensland, Ashford Homes in Victoria and Huxley Homes in New South Wales. These are all major constructors of new houses in their respective states. He is the founder of Oz Homes Foundation, and is managing director of Home Australia. Day's business activities have made him a millionaire.

Day was the long-time secretary of the New Right-influenced HR Nicholls Society and a founder of Independent Contractors of Australia (ICA) - a front group campaigning for labour market deregulation in Australia. According to John Stone of the HR Nicholls Society, "one of the most active members of that Association (ICA), Mr Bob Day, has been a member of the (HR Nicholls) Society's Board of Management almost from the outset. I do not think he will contradict me if I say that he has taken the ethos of the Society into the work of the Association." Day was also a former board member of the Centre for Independent Studies - a libertarian Australian think tank.

Community

Day was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to the housing industry and to social welfare, on Australia Day 2003.

He also holds the following positions within the community:

Chairman of the North East Development Agency and North East Vocational College.
Patron of the North East Keep Kids Safe drug education program.
Member of the National Work for the Dole Advisory Committee.

Day has planted several thousand trees for farmers and land owners across the State, and undertook a roadside planting, irrigation and re-vegetation program along North East Road including a local school.

Political views

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2010)

Industrial relations

Despite agitating for further measures than WorkChoices took, believing it did not deregulate the industrial relations system far enough, Day says his position is the same as that of the Family First Party who opposed WorkChoices. The Sydney Morning Herald wrote in 2008:

In 2002, as secretary of H.R. Nicholls, he blamed the award system for high unemployment and the social ills of drugs, crime, violence, poor health, teenage pregnancy and suicide. In a March 2005 financial forum speech, he likened workplace regulations and protections to "Checkpoint Charlie" as he advocated his idea of workplace nirvana, called "Workforce Superhighway". Employment conditions would be determined solely between employers and employees and "no one else". "Hours of work, rates of pay, holidays, sick leave, long-service leave, hiring and firing, will all be agreed between the two parties". There would be no industrial relations commission and workers could settle disputes through either voluntary mediators or magistrates courts. In a January 2005 newspaper column, he urged a return to when apprentices were indentured to tradesmen and paid a modest wage that started at "10 to 15 per cent" of the tradesman's wage. Yet last week The Courier, a local paper in Mayo, featured a small interview piece with Day. "Even on Work Choices - the controversial industrial relations reform that was the biggest single factor in the Coalition's federal election loss - Mr Day said he shared the same views as his new party, which opposed the unpopular policy." Former fellow Liberals were bent double with laughter. "It's true to say his position was to oppose it but only because he thought Work Choices was too bound up with regulation and red tape," said one former colleague. "He was a complete deregulationist."

Electoral results

Liberal Party of Australia

2007 federal election

Day was the candidate in the Division of Makin for the Liberal Party of Australia in the 2007 federal election, one of the three marginal seats in South Australia lost to the Australian Labor Party. On a two party preferred vote of 57.70 percent to Labor, it is the safest of the 23 seats they won from the coalition at the election. Day and the Liberals suffered a two party swing in Makin of 8.63 percent.

Family First Party

2009 Mayo by-election

Day decided to run as a Family First Party candidate at the 2008 Mayo by-election, after resigning his 20-year membership of the Liberal Party, accusing the party of a "manipulated" process which saw former Howard government advisor chiefly for WorkChoices, Jamie Briggs, gain Liberal preselection. Although endorsed by former Treasurer Peter Costello, the Liberal preselection process saw Day gain 10 of 271 votes. Labor did not contest the blue-ribbon seat, and on a two-party result of 57 percent at the previous election, the Liberals retained the seat in the by-election, with the Greens falling a few percent short of a two-party majority. Family First and Day received around 11 percent of the primary vote, behind the Australian Greens on around 21 percent and independent Diane Bell on around 16 percent.

2010 federal election

Day was first on the South Australian Family First Party ticket for the Australian Senate at the 2010 federal election. The 2007 result (where independent Nick Xenophon polled 15 percent) saw the Family First Party in South Australia suffer a 1.1 percent swing, finishing with a state-wide primary vote of 2.9 percent. After preferences, a candidate needs 14.3 percent of the vote (a quota) to gain election. Some commentators claimed Day had a "strong chance of taking one of the last two South Australian Senate seats", citing "effective preferences from nine smaller parties". Other commentators rated Day a "slim" chance, citing campaign and financial troubles with the Family First Party. At the election, Day and Family First received a swing of about 1.2 percent to finish on about 4.1 percent of the vote. This was well short of a quota, with Liberal Party former MP David Fawcett projected by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to win the last of the six South Australian Senate seats up for election. ABC projections after progression of the count and preference flows temporarily put Day on track to pick up the last Senate seat, however further progression of the count put Fawcett back in the lead by several thousand votes.

References

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