Hi Folks,
I’m Roy Butler, the Member for Barwon in the NSW Parliament.
I live on a property at Mendooran with my wife Jenny, where we breed and raise cattle. Our adult children are now working or studying.
After leaving boarding school, I enlisted in the Australian Army. After basic and Infantry IETs I was posted to Brisbane with the Royal Australian Regiment, where I was in the reconnaissance sniper platoon.
After a while I switched from part-time service to study and I completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Addictions Counselling and Group Psychotherapy. For three months, I lived as part of a treatment population and participated in one-on-one counselling as a counsellor. After completing my study, I started working for Corrective Services NSW.
For the next few years, I worked in the NSW prison system as a drug and alcohol counsellor and group psychotherapist. After that, I delivered and coordinated offender management programs across the Sydney metropolitan area and in western New South Wales.
In 2004, I started work with the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care as a manager of community access, where I had led teams of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, psychologists and case workers across western New South Wales who all delivered services to people with intellectual disabilities.
After five years in ageing and disability, I was appointed as regional manager of the Western Region of the NSW Police Force, a job I describe as “the best job in New South Wales”.
In 2012 and 2013, I completed an Executive Master of Public Administration through the Australia and New Zealand School of Government.
In the March 2019 election, I was elected to the NSW Parliament to represent the people of Barwon.
I’m passionate about seeing Barwon get its fair share.
About Barwon
Barwon is a vast north-west rural electorate of 356,292 square kilometres and is the state's largest electorate, covering 44.5% of the state. It stretches from Walgett, Narrabri and Coonabarabran in the east to Broken Hill and the South Australian border.
Major centres include Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Bourke, Cobar, Condobolin, Walgett, Brewarrina, Warren, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Narrabri, Wee Waa and Coonabarabran.
The electorate derives its name from the Barwon River, which flows into and becomes the Darling River at the confluence with the Culgoa River, west of Brewarrina.