Peter Ronald Hall (born 27 May 1952) is an Australian retired politician. He was a National member of the Victorian Legislative Council from 1988 to 2014, representing Gippsland Province (1988–2006) and the Eastern Victoria Region (2006–2014). Early life and education Hall was born and raised in Castlemaine, Victoria. He graduated from Castlemaine High School in 1969 and moved to Melbourne to attend university. He graduated from Monash University in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts and completed a Diploma of Education the following year. Football career He showed promise as an Australian rules football player as a young person, being the best and fairest for the Castlemaine Football Club in 1969, at only 17 years of age. While studying teaching at Monash University in Melbourne, Hall made his debut for the Carlton Football Club in what was then the Victorian Football League (now named the Australian Football League). He went on to play 37 senior games between 1971 and 1974. However, he retired from top-grade football at the end of the 1974 season, moving to Traralgon in 1975 to take up a full-time secondary teaching position. Over the next fourteen years, Hall continued to teach in Traralgon while also being the playing coach of his local football club. He twice won the league's best and fairest award, and coached both Traralgon and Morwell to premierships. Both of these careers were to end, however, when Hall was elected to the safe National seat of Gippsland Province at the 1988 state election. Political career Hall was given little responsibility in his first term in office, but after being re-elected in 1996, he was made Deputy President of the Legislative Council and Chairman of the Ministerial Rural Health Advisory Group. When the Liberal–National coalition lost government in 1999, Hall became the Deputy Leader of the National Party in the Legislative Council and Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation, Youth and Affairs. However, this was to again change in 2000, when the now-opposition coalition fractured. This meant that the Victorian division of the National Party was now the only one anywhere in the country to be separate from the Liberal Party. Hall subsequently lost his three shadow ministries, but instead became the party's spokesperson for education, tertiary education, secondary education, primary education, preschools, adult learning, e learning resources and the environment. The following year, he was again promoted, and was made Leader of the