Andrew Gee

Andrew Robert Gee (born 13 September 1968) is an Australian politician. He has held the Division of Calare in the House of Representatives since 2016, representing the National Party until December 2022 when he resigned to sit as an independent in opposition to the party's opposition to an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. In the 2025 election, he was re-elected to the seat as an Independent.

Gee is a lawyer by profession. He served in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2011 to 2016, representing the seat of Orange. He was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2016 federal election. From 2020 to 2022 he held ministerial office in the Morrison government, serving as Minister for Decentralisation and Regional Education (2020–2021), Veterans' Affairs (2021–2022) and Defence Personnel (2021–2022).

Early life Gee was born on 13 September 1968 in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.

After commencing practice as a solicitor, Gee started a business with his brothers David and Matthew licensing consumer products and promotions for international entertainment companies. He was based in Hong Kong and his brothers were based in Singapore. He returned to Australia in 1999 and began working for Colin Biggers & Paisley, becoming a barrister in 2003. Together with his wife and young children, Gee moved to Orange in 2005. His legal practice was in the fields of civil litigation and family law, and had offices in Queen's Square Chambers in Orange and Sydney.

Politics Since youth, Gee had already been involved with the Nationals, "grew up handing out how to votes for the National Party" and "took National Party stickers to school and handed them out". During his election campaign, Gee was diagnosed with melanoma and given a 50% chance of survival.

At the March 2011 election, Gee was elected and received a swing of 12.5 points towards the Nationals in the traditionally strong Nationals seat, winning 74.2% of the two-party vote. Gee's main competitor was John Davis, an independent candidate, Mayor of Orange, former Councillor on Blayney Shire Council, and local car dealer.

Federal politics On 30 April 2016, Gee was preselected by the National Party to contest the seat of Calare at the 2016 federal election, and resigned from his state seat before the federal election. The by-election to fill the vacancy was not held until 12 November 2016.

Gee won the seat of Calare at the federal election on 2 July 2016.

In January 2019, Gee was appointed Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack. He held the position until a ministerial reshuffle in February 2020, when he was elevated to the outer ministry as Minister for Decentralisation and Regional Education and Minister Assisting the Minister for Trade and Investment. As a result of his support, he was appointed as Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel and was elevated to cabinet. He served as Minister until May 2022, following the appointment of the Albanese ministry.

On 26 March 2022, Gee gave a press conference in which he threatened to resign as a minister if additional funding was not provided in the Federal budget to address a backlog of claims from veterans. At this time the budget was scheduled to be handed down three days later. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that the measure would receive initial funding in the budget, and that Gee was unfamiliar with how the budget process worked. A member of the Nationals told ABC News that Gee should have advocated for the funding months earlier if he had wanted to lock it in.

On 23 December 2022, Gee announced that he would be leaving the National Party and sitting as an independent after the Nationals' announcement that they would be opposing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Gee noted in a statement, "I can't reconcile the fact that every Australian will get a free vote on the vitally important issue of the Voice, yet National Party MPs are expected to fall into line behind a party position that I fundamentally disagree with, and vote accordingly in parliament." Notably, his electorate had one of the highest percentage of "No" in the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum, with 71.21% of the electorate's respondents voted "No".

After leaving the party, Gee contested Calare as an independent candidate in the 2025 federal election. He was successful in his re-election and defeated the National Party's candidate Sam Farraway. He became the second independent-elected MP for the seat after the well-known Peter Andren, who held the seat from 1996 to 2007.

Political positions In his maiden speech to Federal Parliament, Gee supported fixed parliamentary terms of four years. This eventually culminated in his resignation from the party a month later.

Personal life Gee surfs and has played rugby union games with the Orange Emulators, a recreational "Golden Oldies" team. He won the Mumbil Black Wattle Fair's Chuck Akubra contest twice, in 2012 and 2014: participants compete to throw an Akubra hat the farthest.