Michael Elderton

The Hon. Michael James Elderton, MP (b. October 16, 1948) is a Georgeland politician. He is presently the leader and only Member of Parliament of the Georgeland Alliance.

Elderton was born in Emilypolis, Scoita, in 1948 to a Protestant family, a minority in Scoita. Elderton attended a Catholic school for some time but later transferred to an Anglican school. In 1971 he graduated from the University of Scoita with a degree in Economics. From 1971 to 1973 he attended Cambridge University where he gained a Masters Degree.

In 1979 he was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative. With the fall of the Tory government in 1983, as the Tories began to shift further and further to the right, Elderton grew dismayed at Tory policy. In the 1987 election, Elderton lost his seat. He returned to Parliament for another seat, Smithfield, in 1988, contesting the by-election, this time as a Labour candidate. Elderton became Minister for Sport in 1993.

In 1995, when the brief Tory government of Eric Edge came to power, Elderton was the opposition Transport spokesman. At the time of the election, he had been promoted to Education. When Campbell Rhodes led Labour to victory in October 1995, Elderton became Minister for Education, a post he held for five years.

Elderton was criticised as a minister for being 'too stingy' (the words of Teachers Union President John Garran) with money for public schools. In 1997, the Rhodes government put a stop to funding private schools altogether, and Elderton was forced to alter the department's policy.

Elderton was one of the 60 Labour members who walked out on the party room in 1999 and formed the Liberals.

In 2000, after Rhodes resigned in the wake of the Corbana Incident, Elderton was elected Liberal leader over Christine Hinkle, who remained deputy. As Prime Minister, Elderton shifted the coalition government firmly rightwards, angering many in the Liberal party and creating conflict with the Democrats, the coalition's junior partner. Elderton won the 2001 election but failed to secure a majority in the House of Commons and led the first minority government in Georgeland since before World War I.

In August 2001, after a blazing row, Rhodes resigned as Elderton's Foreign Minister and challenged for the leadership. He won, and Elderton returned to the backbench bitter. He contested the 2002 election as an Independent. In 2003, he announced the formation of the Georgeland Alliance, a centrist political party devoted to "sensible economic management and acting as a check on the power of the major parties'. Despite criticism form some circles that the Alliance was merely a forum to stay in the limelight after a totally unsuccessful premiership, Elderton and his party won eight Senate seats in the 2005 election, and Elderton was one of only two members of the new House not to come from either of the major parties. From January 1, 2006, when the new Senate term begins, Elderton will have significant influence, though the LDP will still have a very small majority in the Upper House.