Rob Johnson fails to stay in parliament

Former Liberal MP Rob Johnson has failed in his attempt to stay in parliament as an independent.

Johnson quit the Liberal party eleven months ago after declaring he’d lost faith in the Liberals and Premier Colin Barnett. The fall out between Johnson and the Premier built up over several years after he was dumped as Police Minister.

Johnson lost his seat of Hillarys to Liberal Peter Katsambanis who has successfully made the move from the upper house to the lower house.

Johnson has previously been an outspoken critic of the LGBTIQ+ community arguing that LGBTIQ+  people try to persuade young people to become gay via the annual Pride parade.

During debate over the gay and lesbian reform bill in 2001, Johnson made several statements including “homosexuality is not normal”.

“Any members on that side of the house who think that homosexuality is normal are living in cloud-cuckoo land,” he said in 2001. “Members have to accept that homosexuality is not the norm.”

The member for Hillarys also accused homosexuals of wanting to “persuade” young people to adopt their way of life and stated that “the whole purpose of the Pride Parade in Northbridge is to promote homosexuality”.

In 2011 the then Police Minister was accused of directing homophobic comments towards Labor member John Hyde during a parliamentary discussion.

Johnson denied calling Hyde “a Queen”. At the time of the controversy Mr Johnson told OUTinPerth his views about the LGBTIQ community had not changed.

OIP Staff