Tony Windsor

Windsor's victory was considered a shock result, since the National Party and its predecessor, the Country Party, had held New England since 1922, usually without serious difficulty.

Antony Harold Curties Windsor, (born 2 September 1950) is a former Australian politician.

Windsor was an independent member for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Tamworth from 1991 to 2001 − supporting the incumbent Greiner Liberal/National Coalition minority government at the 1991 election.

In the 1991 election, Windsor was first elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Member for Tamworth.

Windsor had originally sought National Party preselection for this seat, but allegations in regards to a drink-driving incident arose on the day of his preselection, and the National Party endorsed another candidate.

In spite of the allegations, Windsor won as an independent candidate and held the seat for ten years.

Windsor was one of the four independents who held the balance of power after Nick Greiner's Liberal-National Coalition lost 10 seats, resulting in a hung parliament.

His decision to support the incumbent Coalition government ensured a second term in government for Greiner.

After an adverse ruling by the Independent Commission Against Corruption against Greiner for offering former minister Terry Metherell a patronage job, the Labor opposition tabled a motion of no confidence in the government.

Windsor and the other three independents told Greiner that unless he resigned, they would withdraw their support from the government and support the no-confidence motion.

Rather than face certain defeat in the House, Greiner resigned and was succeeded by John Fahey.

Windsor is known as the architect of the bill which became an amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) known as the water trigger.

The new legislation forced the government through a process whereby actions by large coal mining developments, in particular coal seam gas, which may adversely affect groundwater in the area and thereby significantly affecting water resources, had to be assessed for environmental impact.

He subsequently entered federal politics, serving as an independent member for the Australian House of Representatives seat of New England from 2001 until retiring in 2013 − supporting the incumbent Gillard Labor minority government at the 2010 election.

Windsor resigned from the state parliament in September 2001 in order to contest the federal seat of New England.

In the federal election held later that year, he defeated one-term National incumbent Stuart St. Clair.

Windsor took a large lead on the first count, and defeated St. Clair on Labor and other party preferences.

In September 2004, in an interview with Tony Vermeer from The Sunday Telegraph, Windsor was the centre of controversy over an alleged breach of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.

Windsor claimed that he had been approached, in May 2004, by a figure associated with the National Party with the offer of a diplomatic position in exchange for retiring from politics.

Windsor made the allegations during the course of the 2004 federal election campaign, some five months after the incident allegedly occurred.

The Australian Electoral Commission referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Windsor was comfortably re-elected in the October 2004 election, increasing his majority to 21 percent.

A month later, speaking under parliamentary privilege, he said that National Party leader John Anderson and Senator Sandy Macdonald had made the offer through an intermediary, Tamworth businessman Greg McGuire.

Windsor also claimed that the AFP had referred the matter to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for determination.

Anderson, Macdonald, and McGuire denied the claims.

The AFP investigated Windsor's claims and advised that the matter would not be prosecuted.

Windsor was comfortably re-elected in 2007, increasing his majority to 24 per cent.

As one of the six crossbenchers elected to the House of Representatives at the 2010 election, Windsor was at the centre of negotiations to determine the government after both major parties failed to win a majority in their own right.

Windsor, together with Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter, initially resolved to form a bloc to assist negotiations with the major parties to form government.

However, several days later, Windsor claimed it should not be assumed that the three rural independents would move together.

In a press conference on 7 September 2010, Windsor revealed that he would support the incumbent Labor government during confidence motions and supply bills.

Oakeshott also threw his support to the incumbent Labor government, handing Labor a second term.

It had been assumed that Windsor would support the Coalition due to his past membership of the National Party but on this Windsor made an analogy of him being an ex-smoker: "I've never been in parliament as a National, I gave up smoking about the same time [and] I've rid myself of two cancers".

On 26 June 2013 Windsor announced that he would not be contesting the 2013 election; partly due to an undisclosed medical condition.

At the 2016 election, Windsor unsuccessfully attempted to regain the seat of New England against Nationals incumbent Barnaby Joyce.

Tony Windsor was born in Quirindi, New South Wales.

He was one of three sons raised by their mother after their father was killed in a farm accident when Windsor was eight years old.

He was educated at Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School, Tamworth and the University of New England, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Economics.

He was a farmer at Werris Creek before entering politics.

On 10 March 2016, Windsor announced his intention to contest his former seat of New England as an independent candidate at the 2016 election.