Brendon Grylls

Brendon Grylls was born on 5 June 1973 in Perth, Western Australia. He was educated at Corrigin District High School and Wesley College, Perth.[3][4]

His political career began in November 2001 when he contested and won a by-election caused by the retirement of the member for Merredin, former Nationals leader Hendy Cowan. Following a redistribution in 2008, Merredin was largely incorporated into the new seat of Central Wheatbelt.

Grylls served as the Shadow Minister for Environment and the Wheatbelt in the Liberal-National Coalition prior to the 2005 election. In June 2005 he successfully challenged then leader Max Trenorden to become the new leader of the WA Nationals. Two years later, he tore up the Coalition agreement and announced the Nationals would contest the next state election as a separate party.

After the 2008 state election, Grylls found himself in a position of power. The Labor Party government lost its majority, resulting in a hung parliament. Neither Premier Alan Carpenter nor Liberal opposition leader Colin Barnett could form a government without the support of the Nationals, leaving Grylls in a position where he could effectively choose the next premier. The WA Nationals do not necessarily follow the lead of their federal counterparts, so there was a possibility that Grylls would support Labor.

Ultimately, Grylls opted to throw his support to the Liberals. In return for his support, Grylls and two other Nationals, Terry Redman and Terry Waldron, accepted posts in Barnett's cabinet. Unlike past Liberal-National Coalitions in Western Australia, however, the National ministers had only limited cabinet collective responsibility, and reserved the right to break with the Liberals on matters affecting their electorates. Additionally, in another departure from past Coalitions, Grylls declined to become Deputy Premier, a post that instead went to Liberal deputy leader Kim Hames, another departure from past Coalitions.

He vacated Central Wheatbelt at the 2013 state election, and contested the traditionally Labor-held seat of Pilbara against Labor's Kelly Howlett, who had replaced the retiring sitting member Tom Stephens.[5] Grylls easily won with seat with 61.5% of the two-party-preferred vote.[6]

On 17 November 2013, Grylls announced he would be resigning as leader of the WA Nationals and returning to the backbench.[7] He retook the leadership in August 2016, and subsequently introduced a plan to tax BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto $5 for every tonne of iron ore mined (as opposed to $0.25 currently).[8] a poll conducted found that 39.4% of voters surveyed supported the policy, 37.1% opposed and 23.5% undecided.[9][10]

Grylls was defeated in Pilbara by the Labor candidate, Kevin Michel, and was subsequently replaced as leader of the National Party by Mia Davies, who had earlier succeeded him in Central Wheatbelt.