Since youth, Gee had already been involved with the Nationals, "grew up handing out
how to votes for the National Party" and "took National Party stickers to school and handed them out". During his election campaign, Gee was diagnosed with
melanoma and given a 50% chance of survival. At the
March 2011 election, Gee was elected and received a swing of 12.5 points towards the Nationals in the traditionally strong Nationals seat, winning 74.2% of the
two-party vote. Gee's main competitor was John Davis, an
independent candidate, Mayor of
Orange, former Councillor on
Blayney Shire Council, and local car dealer.
Federal politics On 30 April 2016, Gee was preselected by the National Party to contest the seat of
Calare at the
2016 federal election, and resigned from his state seat before the federal election. The
by-election to fill the vacancy was not held until 12 November 2016. Gee won the seat of
Calare at the
federal election on 2 July 2016. In January 2019, Gee was appointed
Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister,
Michael McCormack. He held the position until a ministerial reshuffle in February 2020, when he was elevated to the outer ministry as
Minister for Decentralisation and Regional Education and Minister Assisting the
Minister for Trade and Investment. As a result of his support, he was appointed as
Minister for Veterans' Affairs and
Minister for Defence Personnel and was elevated to cabinet. He served as Minister until May 2022, following the appointment of the
Albanese ministry. On 26 March 2022, Gee gave a press conference in which he threatened to resign as a minister if additional funding was not provided in the Federal budget to address a backlog of claims from veterans. At this time the budget was scheduled to be handed down three days later. Prime Minister
Scott Morrison said that the measure would receive initial funding in the budget, and that Gee was unfamiliar with how the budget process worked. A member of the Nationals told ABC News that Gee should have advocated for the funding months earlier if he had wanted to lock it in. On 23 December 2022, Gee announced that he would be leaving the National Party and sitting as an independent after the Nationals' announcement that they would be opposing the
Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Gee noted in a statement, "I can't reconcile the fact that every Australian will get a free vote on the vitally important issue of the Voice, yet National Party MPs are expected to fall into line behind a party position that I fundamentally disagree with, and vote accordingly in parliament." Notably, his electorate had one of the highest percentage of "No" in the
2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum, with 71.21% of the electorate's respondents voted "No". After leaving the party, Gee contested Calare as an independent candidate in the
2025 federal election. He was successful in his re-election and defeated the National Party's candidate
Sam Farraway. He became the second independent-elected MP for the seat after the well-known
Peter Andren, who held the seat from 1996 to 2007.
Political positions In his maiden speech to Federal Parliament, Gee supported fixed parliamentary terms of four years. This eventually culminated in his resignation from the party a month later. ==Personal life==