Overview
John Randall Sharp (born 15 December 1954) is an Australian former politician who served as a National Party member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the Divisions of Gilmore, 1984 to 1993 and Hume, 1993 to 1998 in New South Wales.
Political career
In 1985 he was appointed Chairman of the Coalition Task Force on Drugs. From 1987 he held the following Shadow Portfolios: Sport, Tourism and Youth Affairs, Transport, and Transport and Waterfront Reform. He was Deputy Leader of the House from 1991 to 1993. In 1996 he became Minister for Transport and Regional Development when the Coalition government under John Howard took office after the 1996 federal election.
In the first ten days of office Sharp re-opened the East West Runway at Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport (KSA), which had been closed by the previous Keating Government. He then reformed the flight paths for KSA under a noise-sharing policy that resolved the issue of aircraft noise complaints that had led to the creation of the No Aircraft Noise Party, who had run candidates in Sydney electorates in the 1996 Federal election. Sharp was responsible for the privatisation of Australia's capital city airports (with the exception of Sydney Airport, which was sold after the 2000 Olympic Games), raising more than $12 billion. He privatised the Commonwealth-owned Australian National Rail in 1997. In 1996 he started the privatisation of the National Rail Corporation (NRC), a Commonwealth, Victorian and NSW government owned rail operator. In 1997 he created the Australian Rail Track Corporation, to overcome the historic and different rail regulatory and access regimes imposed by state governments. Sharp reformed the Australian National Shipping Line (ANL) which was then privatised. In 1996 he initiated a complete rewrite of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's regulations. During 1996 and 1997, in conjunction with Peter Reith, Minister for Industrial Relations, he was tasked to develop a plan to reform Australia's waterfront. This resulted in significant reforms that modernised stevedoring and improved the efficiency and reliability of Australia's waterfront. Sharp initiated a National Drivers License Scheme, linking all Australian drivers licenses in each state.
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