John Randall Sharp Australian politician, is a former National Party

National Party of Australia

The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

 member of the Australian 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....

 representing the Divisions of Gilmore

Division of Gilmore

The Division of Gilmore is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1984 and is named for Dame Mary Gilmore, the poet and author. It is located in the Shoalhaven the southern Illawarra regions, extending from Warilla in the north to Durras in the south, then...

 and Hume

Division of Hume

The Division of Hume is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. The Division is located in the central part of the state, just north of the Australian Capital Territory. The Division covers a predominantly rural area, with agriculture and coal mining the main industries...

 in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

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He became Minister for Transport and Regional Development when the Coalition

Coalition (Australia)

The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...

 government under John Howard

John Howard

John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....

 took office after the 1996 federal election.

Sharp resigned from the ministry on 24 September 1997 after becoming involved in a scandal over misuse of parliamentary travel allowances. The "Travel Rorts Affair" – which also claimed the ministerial careers of Peter McGauran and David Jull

David Jull

David Francis Jull was an Australian politician. He was a long-serving Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Bowman, Queensland, from 1975–83 and Fadden, Queensland, from 1984–2007.Jull was born in Kingaroy, Queensland, and was educated at the...

 – unfolded when an audit of parliamentary expense claims revealed that a number of MPs had fraudulently or inadvertently submitted incorrect travel claims. He retired from Parliament on 31 August 1998, prior to the 1998 election.

After retiring from politics, Sharp founded a transport consultancy company, and became deputy chairman of Regional Express Airlines

Regional Express Airlines

Regional Express Pty Ltd is an airline based in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. It operates scheduled regional services. It is Australia's largest regional airline outside the Qantas group of companies and serves New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, North Queensland and Tasmania...

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