Charles Christian Porter is an Australian politician who is the current Liberal Party member for the federal Division of Pearce since the 2013 federal election.
Education
Porter was educated at the University of Western Australia where he graduated Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Arts with first-class honours in politics, before completing a Bachelor of Laws degree. Porter later studied at the for a Master of Science in political theory, from which he graduated at the top of his class with distinction.
Career
Porter was a Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister in the Abbott Government from December 2014, before being promoted to Minister for Social Services in the Turnbull Government from September 2015. Before his election to the federal parliament, Porter had served in the Parliament of Western Australia. He first entered the Legislative Assembly after winning the seat of Murdoch in a 2008 by-election following the death of the sitting member, Trevor Sprigg, and he was subsequently elected to the new seat of Bateman at the 2008 general election.
After the Liberals formed government, Porter was appointed Attorney-General in the Barnett ministry.
In December 2010, he was also appointed Treasurer, and held both portfolios until June 2012, when he resigned from the ministry to contest the 2013 federal election. He was appointed Attorney-General and Minister for Corrective Services after the election, having held the equivalent shadow portfolios prior to the election.
On 14 December 2010, Porter was sworn in as Treasurer of Western Australia. He retained the portfolio of Attorney General, while the Corrective Services portfolio was transferred to Terry Redman.
On 12 June 2012, he announced he was stepping down from his ministerial portfolios to contest the seat of Pearce at the 2013 Australian federal election.
On 20 September 2015, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Porter would replace Scott Morrison as Social Services Minister as part of a Cabinet overhaul Prior to entering Parliament, Porter worked predominantly as a lawyer, starting as a commercial litigator at Clayton Utz before moving to public practice. He spent a year as an advisor to the Federal Minister for Justice and then began working for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as a senior state prosecutor. Before his election in 2008, Porter was working as a lecturer at the University of Western Australia as well as retaining, part-time, his position as senior prosecutor at the DPP. Porter"s father was Charles "Chilla" Porter, who during the 1970s and 1980s was director of Western Australia"s Liberal Party.
Membership
He is the son of the 1956 Olympic silver medalist, Charles "Chilla" Porter, and the grandson of Queensland Liberal political, Charles Porter, who was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1966 to 1980.