Paul Fletcher is an Australian politician and a member of the Liberal Party, representing the NSW Division of Bradfield since 2009.
He was Chief of Staff to the Minister for Communications in the Howard Government, Senator Richard Alston. Mr Fletcher served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications between September 2013 and September 2015 in the Abbott Ministry. From September 2015 to July 2016, he was the Minister for Major Projects, Territories, and Local Government. He briefly served as the Minister for Territories, Local Government and Major Projects between October and December 2017. Mr Fletcher enters Cabinet as the Minister for Families and Social Services under the Morrison government from August 2018 to May 2019. He became Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts from May 2019 and took on additional responsibilities for Urban Infrastructure and Cities from December 2020 until May 2022 following the defeat of the Liberal Party at the federal election. In June 2022, Mr Fletcher became the Shadow Minister for Science, the Digital Economy and Government Services, and the Manager of Opposition Business in the House in the Dutton shadow ministry.
Before entering Parliament, Mr Fletcher was director of corporate and regulatory affairs at Optus for eight years, established a consulting firm serving the communications sector, and published his book about broadband, Wired Brown Land, in 2009.
Mr Fletcher has dual first class honours degrees in law and economics from The University of Sydney, and an MBA from Columbia University in New York where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He has been a member of the Liberal Party since he was 16 and was active in student politics at Sydney University. He was a champion university debater, twice reaching the finals of the World Universities Debating Championship.
