Eric Laidlaw Robinson was an Australian politician.

Robinson took over his family's sporting goods business and built it up from a single store into a chain along the Queensland coast. He was president of the Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 branch of the Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 in from 1968 to 1973. He was elected to the Federal seat of McPherson

Division of McPherson

The Division of McPherson is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. The division was created in 1948 and is named for the McPherson Range, which forms one of the divisional boundaries...

 in the House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

. Following the Malcolm Fraser

Malcolm Fraser

John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...

's win at the 1975 election

Australian federal election, 1975

Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1975. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 64 seats in the Senate were up for election following a double dissolution of both Houses....

, he was appointed Minister for the Capital Territory

Minister for Home Affairs (Australia)

The Australian Minister for Home Affairs has been Brendan O'Connor since 6 June 2009. The Home Affairs portfolio brings together agencies such as the Australian Customs Service , the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, which were previously the...

 in the Fraser ministry

Second Fraser Ministry

The Second Fraser Ministry was the fifty-second Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 22 December 1975 to 20 December 1977.Liberal Party of Australia–National Country Party Coalition-Cabinet:*Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser, MP: Prime Minister...

. In February 1976, he was moved to Minister for Post and Telecommunications

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Australia)

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is currently Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy. He replaced Senator the Hon Helen Coonan on 3 December 2007.-Portfolio:...

. He was appointed Minister for Finance

Minister for Finance and Administration (Australia)

In the Australian political system, the Minister for Finance and Deregulation supplements the role of the Treasurer, being responsible for areas such as budget policy advice, reviewing governmental programs, tendering and government financial accountability. The portfolio was first created in 1976...

 following Phillip Lynch

Phillip Lynch

Sir Phillip Reginald Lynch KCMG was an Australian Liberal politician.Lynch held the House of Representatives seat of Flinders from 1966 to 1982. Between 1968 and 1972, he served variously as Minister for the Army, Minister for Immigration, and Minister for Labour and National Service, under Prime...

's standing down in 1977. Allegations of malpractice by him were dealt with in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Matters in Relation to Electoral Redistribution in Queensland 1977, which exonerated him of wrong-doing. On 22 February 1979, he resigned from the ministry

Third Fraser Ministry

The Third Fraser Ministry was the fifty-third Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 20 December 1977 to 3 November 1980.Liberal Party of Australia–National Country Party Coalition-Cabinet:*Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser, MP: Prime Minister...

, stating in a letter to Fraser that he could no longer give him his
"unqualified support". On 27 February he agreed to return as Minister for Finance—Fraser said that "there were no significant differences" between them. He was not reappointed to the ministry, following the 1980 election

Australian federal election, 1980

Federal elections were held in Australia on 18 October 1980. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives, and 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate, were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Malcolm Fraser with coalition partner the National Country Party led by Doug...

.

Robinson died suddenly, survived by his wife, Narelle, a son and a daughter.