Richard Riordan (Australian politician)

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Richard Vincent Riordan (born 11 April 1972) is an Australian politician and businessman. He was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as a Liberal Party member for Polwarth, at a by-election held October 31st, 2015.

In 1989 he completed his Year 12 education in Calgary (Alberta, Canada) as a Rotary Exchange Student, and completed his Victorian Certificate of Education at Trinity College Colac in 1990. Riordan was a prefect and was admitted to Monash University to undertake a Bachelor of Business Management - during this time he was active in university politics as well as the Young Liberal Movement.^{[citation needed]}

After completing his studies in 1994, he was appointed managing director of his family's hardware business.^[1] In 1999, Riordan was nominated for pre-selection in the seat of Polwarth, vacated by Ian Smith. Terry Mulder subsequently won pre-selection for Polwarth in 1999.^{[citation needed]}

Riordan experienced defeat in pre-selection again in 2010 before being successful in 2015, and was subsequently re-elected at the 2018 state election. Despite the Liberal Party experiencing a swing against it, Riordan increased his primary vote - receiving in excess of 50% of the vote. Riordan was appointed Assistant Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Regional Development and Deputy Chair of The Public Accounts and Estimates Committee.^[2][3][4][5]

Marquee issues for Riordan include wire rope barriers on county roads, and their effectiveness as a notable and important life-saving measure.^[6] He recently^[timeframe?] came under fire for his comments after the death of a truck driver in Clifton Springs^[7] where he was accused of using a fatality for political gain. His views were however supported by some road transport groups.^[8]

He was managing director of his family company, which had varied retail interests. He is active in the local community, having served as director of the board of Colac Area Health.^[9] After the Liberal Party loss during the 2022 Victorian state election, Riordan announced his candidacy for the 2022 Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division) leadership election.^[10] A few days later he would withdraw and announce his support for Brad Battin for the leadership election.^[11]

• Official website
• Parliamentary biography