Representative Darren Chester Contact information

Darren Jeffrey Chester is an Australian politician who was born on September 13, 1967, in Sale, Victoria. He grew up in a family of five children, and his father was a plumber. Before entering federal politics, Chester worked as a newspaper and television journalist throughout Gippsland and was chief of staff to Peter Ryan, the leader of the Nationals in the Victorian state parliament.

Chester’s political career began when he contested Gippsland East as the National Party candidate at the 2002 Victorian state election but lost to independent Craig Ingram. In 2004, he unsuccessfully stood for National Party preselection for the Senate position held by Julian McGauran. He was then elected to the House of Representatives in 2008 as the Nationals member for Gippsland in Victoria, after the resignation of Peter McGauran. He has been re-elected in subsequent elections.

Chester has held various positions in parliament. He was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport in September 2010, then Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence in September 2013. He served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence in the Abbott ministry from September 2013 to September 2015. In the Turnbull government, he was appointed Assistant Minister for Defence from September 2015, and from February 2016 to December 2017, he served as the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport.

Chester was also the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and the Minister for Defence Personnel between March 2018 and July 2021 in the Turnbull and Morrison governments. He was also Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC until May 2019. Chester has been a frequent critic of Barnaby Joyce, labelling him ‘incoherent’, criticising his leadership style and scepticism of climate science.

Chester has faced controversy, including over his taxpayer-funded travel allowances usage, where he charged taxpayers $407,000 on private air charters to travel to Canberra for parliamentary sittings, and a work trip to Melbourne, where he charged taxpayers $876, which he used to buy a two-bedroom apartment in Ivanhoe as an investment property and to attend a Melbourne Victory soccer match.

Chester lives in Lakes Entrance, Victoria, with his wife, Julie, and their four children. He supports the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League.