17 Facts About Darren Chester

Darren Jeffrey Chester was born on 13 September 1967 and is an Australian politician.

Darren Chester has been a member of the House of Representatives for Gippsland in Victoria, representing the Nationals since 2008.

Darren Chester was Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC until May 2019.

Darren Chester served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence in the Abbott ministry from September 2013 to September 2015.

Darren Chester briefly served in the Second Turnbull Ministry as the acting Minister for Regional Development and as the acting Minister for Local Government and Territories between October and December 2017, following the resignation of Fiona Nash.

Darren Chester was viewed as a potential candidate to replace Barnaby Joyce as National Party leader in February 2018; however he chose not to contest the leadership.

Darren Chester was born in Sale, Victoria, the son of a plumber, and was one of five children.

Darren Chester contested Gippsland East as the National Party candidate at the 2002 Victorian state election, losing to independent Craig Ingram.

Darren Chester was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2008 by-election caused by the resignation of Peter McGauran, and re-elected at the 2010 and 2013 elections.

Darren Chester was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport in September 2010; and appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence in September 2013.

Chaotic scenes ensued at a Gippsland Nationals branch meeting where Darren Chester was reported to have verbally abused local party members, with Darren Chester subsequently attacking The Australian newspaper for its coverage of the controversy.

The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that between 2008 and 2016, Darren Chester charged taxpayers $407,000 on private air charters to travel to Canberra for parliamentary sittings, despite most MPs using normal commercial air services or driving.

On 27 January 2016, Darren Chester charged taxpayers $876 for a work trip to Melbourne on which he completed the purchase of a two-bedroom apartment in Ivanhoe as an investment property and to later attended a Melbourne Victory soccer match.

Darren Chester won a subsequent promotion to Cabinet after McCormack defeated a leadership challenge by Joyce in February 2020.

For supporting incumbent McCormack in the 2021 Nationals leadership spill, Darren Chester was stripped of his ministerial portfolios by new leader Joyce.

Darren Chester was comfortably re-elected at the 2022 Australian federal election.

Darren Chester was eventually not included in the subsequent shadow ministry.