Matt Canavan

Matthew James Canavan (born 17 December 1980) is an Australian politician.

He was the first member of cabinet born in the 1980s.

He was a senior research economist (2003–2008) and later director (2009–2010), briefly moving to Brisbane as a senior executive at KPMG (2008–2009).

In 2006, Canavan's mother had registered him as an "Italian resident abroad" with the Italian consulate in Brisbane.

Canavan stated that he had been unaware of this until his mother had informed him of it following the resignation of two Greens senators over their dual citizenship.

The government took the view that he was not in breach of the Constitution, as the registration had not been made with his knowledge or consent.

Canavan resigned from cabinet, but not from Parliament, as he had not yet been given a definitive legal view on the matter.

Initially, Canavan accepted that he had Italian citizenship.

From 2010 to 2013 Canavan served as chief of staff to Senator Barnaby Joyce, at the time serving as shadow minister for finance.

He later turned down an offer to move to Andrew Robb's office, despite Joyce's demotion to a less senior portfolio.

He was elected to the Australian Senate representing the state of Queensland at the 2013 federal election for the term beginning 1 July 2014.

Canavan was elected to the Australian Senate as a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland, representing Queensland at the 2013 federal election for the term beginning 1 July 2014.

He sits with the National Party in the Senate, although he had been a member of the Liberal club during his latter days at UQ.

He won re-election at the 2016 election and again at the 2022 Australian federal election.

He was the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia between February 2016 and February 2020.

He is a member of the Liberal National Party and sits with National Party in federal parliament.

In the First Turnbull Ministry, Canavan served as the Minister for Northern Australia between 18 February and 19 July 2016.

With the reelection of the Turnbull government in 2016, Canavan was elevated into Cabinet becoming the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia in the Second Turnbull Ministry.

He briefly resigned from the Cabinet between July and October 2016 amid his High Court citizenship challenge.

In July 2017, amid the 2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, Canavan resigned from Cabinet over doubt as to his eligibility to be a member of the parliament, after discovering that he might be an Italian citizen.

After the High Court found in October 2017 that Canavan was not an Italian citizen, he was immediately reappointed to Cabinet.

He then renounced it, effective 8 August 2017.

On the same day, on a government motion with all-party support, the Senate resolved to refer the matters of Senators Scott Ludlam, Larissa Waters and Canavan to the High Court as Court of Disputed Returns.

The Attorney-General indicated that the Commonwealth would argue, in favour of Cavanan, that s 44(i) requires a personal acknowledgement of the connection, which had not occurred.

Canavan spoke in support of the referral, while stating that he did not believe he was in breach of s 44(i), and said that he would not be voting in the Senate until his position was determined by the Court.

Later, four other members of the federal parliament were referred to the High Court, which heard the seven cases together.

In February 2020, Canavan resigned again from Cabinet to support Barnaby Joyce in his unsuccessful bid for National Party leadership.

Canavan was born in Southport on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

He is of Italian descent; his mother's parents were born in Lozzo di Cadore, in the Italian province of Belluno.

His father Bryan worked as a manager at Woolworths and sales representative with Nestlé, while his mother Maria worked as a teller with the Commonwealth Bank.

His brother John is a mining executive, and managing director of Winfield Energy, which had a significant interest in the Rolleston coal mine until 2020.

Canavan grew up in Slacks Creek in the City of Logan.

He attended Chisholm Catholic College, where he was active in Edmund Rice Camps.

While at University, Canavan identified as a communist until a political disagreement with volunteers for the International Socialist Organisation.

He holds the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Economics (Hons.) from the University of Queensland.

After graduating from university he moved to Canberra to work at the Productivity Commission.

On 3 February 2020, he resigned again from Cabinet to support Barnaby Joyce in his unsuccessful bid for National Party leadership. He also cited his failure to declare his membership of the North Queensland Cowboys, as the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility within his Northern Australia portfolio, approved a $20 million loan for the Cowboys to build a training centre next to the North Queensland Stadium in Townsville.

He denied it was a breach of ministerial standards as under the North Australia Infrastructure Facility Act, he had no power to approve loans but could only reject them.

After his resignation from the Cabinet, he remained as deputy leader of the Nationals in the Senate, along with Bridget McKenzie as leader, as the other three Nationals senators were first-termers.

Canavan has served on the "Inquiry into the destruction of 46,000 year old caves at the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia", which delivered its interim report in December 2020.