13 Facts About Santo Santoro

Santo Santoro was born on 27 April 1956 and is an Australian former politician and a former deputy leader of the Liberal Party in Queensland.

Santo Santoro was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1989 to 2001; and a member of the Australian Senate from 2002 to 2007, representing the state of Queensland.

Santo Santoro resigned from John Howard's ministry and from the Senate in the wake of a number of breaches of the Ministerial Code of Conduct and of the Register of Senators' Interests.

Santo Santoro was educated at Marist College Rosalie in Brisbane before attending the University of Queensland, where he was awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Economics with honours.

Santo Santoro first contested the seat at the 1986 state election against Liberal-turned-National incumbent and Transport Minister Don Lane, and finished third on the primary vote.

At the state election later that year, Santoro was almost swept up in the massive Labor wave that swept through Brisbane; he only held on to his seat by 164 votes after all preferences were distributed, and was one of only five Liberals elected from Brisbane.

Merthyr was abolished in 1992, and Santoro followed most of his constituents into the re-created seat of Clayfield, which he held from 19 September 1992 until he was defeated on 17 February 2001 by Liddy Clark.

On 29 October 2002, Santoro was selected by the Queensland Parliament to replace Liberal Party of Australia Senator John Herron, who had resigned from the Senate to become Australia's Ambassador to Ireland.

On 14 March 2007, Senator Santoro disclosed that he had breached the government's ministerial code of conduct by holding shares in CBio, a biotechnology company related to his portfolio.

Santo Santoro was replaced in the Senate by Sue Boyce.

Santo Santoro was federal Liberal Party vice-president until resigning in 2014 when he was forced to choose between that and being a paid lobbyist.

Santo Santoro owns Santo Santoro Consulting and is registered as a lobbyist on both the Queensland and federal registers.

In 2010, it was reported that Santoro was considering a run for Italian politics.