The Hon Stuart Robert MP
Stuart Robert has been the Federal Member for the northern Gold Coast seat of Fadden since November 2007. He is a passionate advocate for the northern Gold Coast in Canberra, working hard to influence the decisions affecting local residents in the community.
In March 2021, Stuart was appointed Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business. In this role, Stuart is working to continue Australia’s economic recovery through protecting jobs, connecting Australians with work and building a workforce with the right skill set to secure our future prosperity.
He has a particular focus on increasing workforce participation for women, ensuring there is an environment for small and family business to thrive, and building a care workforce to support our veterans, our childcare centres, provide services for people with disability and our aged care sector.
Since entering public life Stuart has held a number of Ministerial appointments, including Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Human Services, Assistant Minister for Defence, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC.
Following the May 2019 election, Stuart took on responsibility for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and services such as Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support, provided to Australians by Services Australia, the executive agency established under his leadership, formally known as the Department of Human Services.
As Minister for Government Services, Stuart led the Federal Government’s efforts to provide social supports to millions of Australians throughout the Black Summer bushfires, several major flooding events and the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of the greatest need of government supports since the Great Depression, Stuart ensured the government services Australians relied upon were provided in a timely and respectful manner. As a result of his leadership, the crisis call wait times reduced, even as demand was at unprecedent levels. Over 3 years’ worth of government supports were processed within five weeks.
As Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Stuart continued the delivery of the most significant social reform since Medicare through rolling-out the NDIS. This included completing the national roll-out and improving scheme delivery, which saw the National Disability Insurance Agency provide supports to NDIS participants faster while also ensuring the scheme expanded to cover over 430,000 Australians – with thousands receiving supports for the very first time. Through his time as Minister, satisfaction with the NDIS remained very-high among NDIS participants.
Prior to this, Stuart served in the Army for 12 years in Infantry and Intelligence Corps units including deploying operationally to Bougainville in 1998 as part of the Peace Monitoring Force.
While serving in the Army, Stuart completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and Masters degrees in both Business Administration and Information Technology.
In 2000 Stuart left the Army and, together with a colleague, founded an IT services firm that rapidly expanded to become a nationwide business. This business was twice named one of Australia’s fastest growing businesses in the Business Review Weekly Fast 100 list.
Stuart’s military experience and his success in running a small business is advantageous to his roles as a Cabinet Minister and Federal Member of Parliament.
Stuart understands the challenges and pressures of running a small business and raising a family. He is a long-term resident of the Gold Coast and is married with three school-aged sons, who he loves spending time with while enjoying local Gold Coast attractions.