Alan John Ashton (born 3 June 1952) is an Australian former politician, previously a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
Ashton received a Master of Arts and Diploma of Education from the University of Sydney and taught at schools in southwestern Sydney. He was a councillor on the City of Bankstown from 1977 to 1987 and 1987 to 1995. Ashton represented East Hills from 1999, for the Labor Party, and was Deputy Government Whip from 2003. [1]
Ashton emerged as a prominent opponent of the former Iemma Government's plans to privatise the NSW electricity industry. He stated that privatisation would be "the Iemma Government's WorkChoices". He also warned of resulting swings to the Greens in inner-city seats. [2] Ashton is a long-time resident of the East Hills electorate. He is married with two children. His interests include politics, sport, history, education and the Health system. He is a member of the History Teachers Association and the NSW Teachers Federation.
Ashton was defeated by Liberal candidate Glenn Brookes by a mere 494 votes at the 2011 state election. This was the first time Labor had lost the seat since its creation in 1953.
Barrie John Unsworth is a former Australian politician, representing the Labor Party in the Parliament of New South Wales from 1978 to 1991. He served as the 36th Premier from July 1986 to March 1988.
John Arthur Watkins is a former Deputy Premier of New South Wales, serving between 2005 until his resignation from Parliament in 2008. Watkins has been the Chief Executive Officer of Alzheimer's Australia (NSW) since 2008; the Chairman of Calvary healthcare since 2011; and the eighth Chancellor of the University of New England, serving between 2013 and 2014.
Michael Costa is a former Australian Labor politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2001 until 2008, and Treasurer of New South Wales from 2006 to 2008 and held other ministerial portfolios in the governments of premiers Bob Carr and Morris Iemma.
Morris Iemma is a former Australian politician who was the 40th Premier of New South Wales. He served from 3 August 2005 to 5 September 2008. From Sydney, Iemma attended the University of Sydney and the University of Technology, Sydney. A member of the Labor Party, he was first elected to the Parliament of New South Wales at the 1991 state election, having previously worked as a trade union official. From 1999, Iemma was a minister in the third and fourth ministries led by Bob Carr. He replaced Carr as premier and Leader of the New South Wales Labor Party in 2005, following Carr's resignation. Iemma led Labor to victory at the 2007 state election, albeit with a slightly reduced majority. He resigned as premier in 2008, after losing the support of caucus, and left parliament shortly after, triggering a by-election. He was replaced as premier by Nathan Rees.
Steven John Chaytor is an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2005 to 2007, representing the southwest Sydney electorate of Macquarie Fields.
Carmel Mary Tebbutt is an Australian former politician. She was the Labor Party Member for the former seat of Marrickville in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly until the 2015 election and was Deputy Premier of New South Wales from 2008 to 2011. She was also Minister for Health in the Keneally Government. She is the first woman to hold the position of Deputy Premier of New South Wales.
Cabramatta is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. Its current member is Nick Lalich of the Labor Party.
George Richard Torbay, an Australian politician, was an independent member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Northern Tablelands from 1999 to 2013. Torbay was the 30th Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, serving from 2007 until 2011, and was the first independent member to be Speaker of the House since 1913. Prior to his election to State parliament, he served as Mayor of Armidale City Council from 1995 to 1998.
Philip Christian Koperberg, is the Chairman of the New South Wales Emergency Management Committee, responsible for advising the New South Wales government on emergency response strategies, since 2011.
John Joseph Aquilina, a former Australian politician, is a former member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Blacktown between 1981 and 1991 and the electorate of Riverstone between 1991 and 2011 for the Labor Party.
Andrew Dominic McDonald is an Australian doctor and former politician.
An election campaign was held ahead of a general election for the 54th Parliament of New South Wales on Saturday, 24 March 2007. The result—a win for the social-democratic Labor Party and its new leader Morris Iemma—was widely perceived as a foregone conclusion, with opposition leader Peter Debnam conceding as much the week before the poll.
Nathan Rees is a former Australian politician who served as the 41st Premier of New South Wales and parliamentary leader of the New South Wales division of the Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009. Rees was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Toongabbie for Labor from 2007 to 2015.
John Cameron "Robbo" Robertson is a former Australian politician who served as the leader of the Labor Party in New South Wales from 2011 to 2014. Before entering politics he was prominent in the union movement.
Elections to the 55th Parliament of New South Wales were held on Saturday, 26 March 2011. The 16-year-incumbent Labor Party government led by Premier Kristina Keneally was defeated in a landslide by the Liberal–National Coalition opposition led by Barry O'Farrell. Labor suffered a two-party swing of 16.4 points, the largest against a sitting government at any level in Australia since World War II. From 48 seats at dissolution, Labor was knocked down to 20 seats—the worst defeat of a sitting government in New South Wales history, and one of the worst of a state government in Australia since federation. The Coalition picked up a 34-seat swing to win a strong majority, with 69 seats–the largest majority government, in terms of percentage of seats controlled, in NSW history. It is only the third time since 1941 that a NSW Labor government has been defeated.
The Australian Labor Party , also known as NSW Labor, is the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party. The parliamentary leader is elected from and by the members of the party caucus, comprising all party members in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. The party factions have a strong influence on the election of the leader. The leader's position is dependent on the continuing support of the caucus and the leader may be deposed by failing to win a vote of confidence of parliamentary members. By convention, the premier sits in the Legislative Assembly, and is the leader of the party controlling a majority in that house. The party leader also typically is a member of the Assembly, though this is not a strict party constitutional requirement. Barrie Unsworth, for example, was elected party leader while a member of the Legislative Council. He then transferred to the Assembly by winning a seat at a by-election.
Glenn Edward Brookes is an Australian politician who was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing East Hills from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Liberal Party, he resigned to become an independent in 2016 after questions were raised about his 2015 campaign, but rejoined the party in 2017.
A general election for the 56th Parliament of New South Wales (NSW) was held on Saturday 28 March 2015. Members were elected to all 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly using optional preferential voting. Members were also elected to 21 of the 42 seats in the Legislative Council using optional preferential proportional representation voting. The election was conducted by the New South Wales Electoral Commission.
The Iemma ministry (2007–08) or Second Iemma ministry is the 90th ministry of the Government of New South Wales, and was led by the 40th Premier Morris Iemma. It was the second and subsequent of two occasions when Iemma was Premier.
Sydney Metro was a proposed rapid transit railway network in Sydney, intended to connect the central business district (CBD) with the inner and outer city suburbs Rouse Hill, Westmead, Malabar and lower North Shore. Initially proposed in 2008 as ‘Metro Link’, the plan was modified and renamed later that year. After half a billion dollars was spent on planning, property acquisitions and a tender process, it was cancelled in 2010.