Background
Smith was born at Terang, Victoria, Australia and educated at Terang Primary and Secondary Schools and Geelong Grammar School.
Smith was born at Terang, Victoria, Australia and educated at Terang Primary and Secondary Schools and Geelong Grammar School.
He represented the Electoral district of Warrnambool in the State of Victoria as a Modern Language Association from 1967 until 1983. He resigned to unsuccessfully contest Liberal Party pre-selection for the Federal Division of Wannon. He later re-entered the Victorian Parliament as Modern Language Association for Electoral district of Polwarth from 1985 to 1999.
He sold that farm in 1988 and moved, living in both Lorne and Melbourne.
He joined the Liberal Party in 1957 and remains a member. He has been married twice, first to Jennifer Louise Bartlam with whom he has two sons, Edward and James.
He later produced a son Carter with Cheryl Maxine Harris. Always a controversial Member of Parliament, Smith was once seen as a future leader of the Liberal Party.
He was sacked from the Hamer Cabinet, then reinstated three days later.
In June 1981 Smith played a major role in forcing Hamer to leave the premiership. When Jeff Kennett became premier in a 1992 landslide, Smith was appointed Minister for Finance, but eventually resigned from the Kennett cabinet because of legal action brought against him. Since politics, Smith has built a successful business career with company directorships and an agribusiness consultancy.
In 2009, Ian Smith was elected to the voluntary position of Chairman of the Corangamite Federal Electorate Council of the Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division).