Robert Edward Borbidge (born 12 August 1954) is a former Australian politician who served as the 35th Premier of Queensland from 1996 to 1998. He was the leader of the Queensland branch of the National Party, and was the last member of that party to serve as premier. His term as premier was contemporaneous with the rise of the One Nation Party of Pauline Hanson, which would see him lose office within two years. Early life Borbidge was born in the town of Ararat, Victoria in 1954. His parents owned a sheep property and were attracted to Queensland by Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen's abolition of death duties, moving to the Gold Coast. He attended The Southport School and worked in his family motel business. At this time, the Gold Coast was the home of the property development boom that the Bjelke-Petersen government actively fostered, working in close co-operation with a group of developers known as the "white-shoe brigade". Parliamentary and ministerial career In an attempt to broaden its electoral base and reduce the influence of its coalition partner, the Liberal Party, the Country Party renamed itself as the National Party in 1974. Also in the mid-1970s, it began a concerted effort to retake seats in the Gold Coast. The area had been a National stronghold until the 1960s, but growing urbanisation resulted in the Liberals taking most of the seats there. This was part of the Nationals' broader strategy of contesting seats in urbanised areas outside of its rural heartland. As a sign of this, in 1980 Borbidge contested and won the seat of Surfers Paradise from sitting Liberal member Bruce Bishop, who had alleged corruption in property development by the Bjelke-Petersen government. By the late 1980s, the scandal of the extreme corruption revealed by the Fitzgerald Inquiry had engulfed Bjelke-Petersen, who was replaced as Premier and National Party leader in 1987 by Mike Ahern. Borbidge, as a member of the new generation of Nationals untouched by political scandal, was promoted by Ahern to Cabinet as Minister for Small Business, Communications and Technology. He received the important portfolio of Tourism in 1989 and was briefly made Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Tourism by Ahern's successor Russell Cooper before he lost office at the hands of the Labor Party's Wayne Goss in the 1989 election. National Party leadership In the post-election party room ballot, Borbidge was elected deputy leader of the