Bert van Manen

Albertus Johannes "Bert" van Manen (born 24 March 1965) is an Australian former politician who represented the Division of Forde in the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2025. He is a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland and sat with the Liberal Party in federal parliament. He was the party's chief whip in the House of Representatives from July 2019 until May 2025.

Early life Bert Van Manen was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to Dutch immigrants. His father was a ceramic tiler. His family moved to Waterford when he was young. He was educated at Kingston, Waterford and Waterford West primary schools and at Kingston State High.

In 1987 he married Judi, and they have two sons.

In 2007 Van Manen co-founded Vangrove Financial Planning with Andrew Cosgrove. He resigned as director in April 2012 but retained a 50% ownership; one month later KPMG administrators were called in when the firm collapsed owing creditors $1.5 million.

Van Manen is on the board of the Dunamis International College of Bible Ministries, revealed in his maiden speech.

Political career In 2007, Bert Van Manen was the Family First Party candidate in the seat of Rankin. He received 3.53% of the primary vote in that election.

In the 2010 federal election, van Manen won the Division of Forde from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) incumbent Brett Raguse. He retained his seat at the 2013 federal election, 2016 federal election, 2019 federal election, and 2022 federal election.

In August 2016 he was appointed to the position of Government Whip.

In 2017, the Division of Forde voted "Yes" in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, with 61% in support of same-sex marriage. Van Manen had campaigned against same-sex marriage, and abstained from the parliamentary vote.

In January 2018, it was reported that several changes to van Manen's Wikipedia page that included deleting references to his failed business, Vangrove Financial Planning, were traced to parliamentary IP addresses. A spokesperson for Bert Van Manen described the edits as having been "well-meaning."

Journalist and former political staffer Niki Savva speculates in her book Plots and Prayers that van Manen may have been a key instrument in the 2018 leadership spill which removed Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister, as Van Manen was deputy Whip and a part of the Morrison Bible Group. Van Manen's was one of six crucial votes that determined Scott Morrison to be the new leader.

On 2 July 2019, following the 2019 federal election, van Manen replaced Nola Marino as Chief Government Whip in the House of Representatives.

He lost his seat to Rowan Holzberger at the 2025 federal election.

Electoral history

+ House of Representatives Election year Electorate Party Votes FP% +/- 2PP% +/- Result 2007 Rankin Family First 2,827 3.53 1.59 2010 Forde Liberal National 30,967 44.08 0.01 51.63 4.99 2013 32,271 42.54 1.54 54.38 2.75 2016 34,096 40.63 1.91 50.63 3.75 2019 39,819 43.50 2.87 58.60 7.97 2022 34,920 36.90 6.60 54.20 4.40 2025 33,023 30.71 6.20 48.23 6.00