Hogan and Clune, "Sir Joseph Carruthers" to The Premiers of NSW (Volume II), edited by Clune and Turner, and "Women in the NSW Coalition Parties" (with Jenny Gardiner MLC) to No Fit Place for Women, edited by Brennan and Chappel. Political career Pre-selected for the sixth position on the joint Liberal–National coalition election ticket for the 1999 NSW state election, Harwin was elected as a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, being the thirteenth candidate elected at that election. Serving an eight-year term, Harwin was re-elected at the 2007 NSW state election, at which he was the seventh candidate elected. He continued to serve as opposition whip in the Legislative Council. Harwin was elected Opposition Whip on 3 April 2003 following the retirement of John Jobling . Harwin was also appointed a Trustee of the Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Fund. In 2000, he raised the issue of unsafe railway tracks in the Illawarra region, claiming that trains could only run at twenty kilometres because of faulty maintenance. Following his re-election, Harwin served as Deputy Chair of the Procedure Committee and had successfully moved a motion in the Upper House to create a Select Committee on Electoral and Political Party Funding, of which he served as Deputy Chair. Following the election of the O'Farrell-Stoner Liberal/National coalition government, Harwin was elected President of the Legislative Council and chair of the Procedure Committee. In a submission to the Senate Standing Committees on Legal and Constitutional Affairs in regards to the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2010, he expressed his strong support for legal equality for same-sex couples. In reference to calls for civil unions he stated "The establishment by government of a new and separate institution for same-sex couples only compounds rather than resolves this issue of inequality." On 19 June 2014, in his role as President of the Legislative Council, he controversially used the powers under Standing Order 192 to eject a Greens MP, Jeremy Buckingham, from the chamber until the end of the sitting after the MP accused him of "running interference" in defence of government members during Question Time. In October 2016, in the wake of the release of taped conversations where U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump bragged about his fame allowing him to grope women, a motion was tabled by Greens Legislative Councillor Jeremy Buckingham to condemn the Republican nominee's statements. The motion included the statement that the NSW