Russell John Northe (born 6 February 1966) is an Australian former politician who was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 2006 until his retirement in 2022.
[1] With repetitive television advertising and campaigning on the issues of workers' rights and bicycle paths, Northe was able to capitalise on divisions within some local branches of the Labor Party to win the seat.
[5] Northe doubled the Nationals' primary vote, secured with the aid of Liberal Party and ex-Labor independent preferences.
According to media reports, he had accrued significant debts exceeding $750,000 owed to over thirty local businessmen, friends, constituents party members, and his own parliamentary leader Peter Walsh, partly due to gambling.
[3][9][10] Those who were persuaded by Northe to lend him money were said to include former employees in his electorate office and a retrenched power station worker who lost a large portion of his redundancy package.