John Robertson | |
---|---|
36th Leader of the Opposition in New South Wales | |
In office 31 March 2011 –23 December 2014 | |
Premier | Barry O'Farrell Mike Baird |
Deputy | Linda Burney |
Preceded by | Barry O'Farrell |
Succeeded by | Luke Foley |
Member of the New South Wales Parliament for Blacktown | |
In office 26 March 2011 –25 August 2017 | |
Preceded by | Paul Gibson |
Succeeded by | Stephen Bali |
Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council | |
In office 18 October 2008 –26 March 2011 | |
Preceded by | Michael Costa |
Personal details | |
Born | John Cameron Robertson 16 November 1962 Ryde,New South Wales |
Political party | Labor |
Spouse | Julie McLeod |
Children | 3 |
Alma mater | University of Technology,Sydney |
Profession | Electrician Union organiser |
John Cameron "Robbo" Robertson (born 16 November 1962) is a former Australian politician who served as the leader of the Labor Party in New South Wales from 2011 to 2014. [1] Before entering politics he was prominent in the union movement.
Robertson was born in Sydney,and worked as an electrician before becoming an organiser for the Electrical Trades Union. He became an industrial officer with the Labor Council of New South Wales in 1991,and was elected assistant secretary in 1998 and secretary in 2001. He also served as a vice-president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Robertson entered the New South Wales Legislative Council in 2008,and was appointed to cabinet in 2009. He switched to the Legislative Assembly at the 2011 state election,where the Labor Party suffered a heavy defeat. Robertson was elected party leader following Kristina Keneally's resignation,becoming leader of the opposition. He resigned the leadership in the aftermath of the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis,after the disclosure of a minor link with its perpetrator. Robertson left politics in August 2017 to work in the non-profit sector. On 9 September 2017,it was announced that Robertson would chair the board for public insurer,icare.
Robertson was born at Ryde Hospital in New South Wales to parents Don and Rowena Robertson,the elder of their two boys. [2] [3] Don Robertson conscripted his son into handing out how to vote cards in the 1972 Australian elections.
Robertson was educated at Denistone East Primary School and Ryde High School. His first job was working for Woolworths packing shopping bags at the age of 15. He left school at 16 and began working as an apprentice electrical fitter. He worked as an electrician from 1979 until 1987 and worked on the New South Wales Parliament building. [3] He claims to be the only person to have worked on the construction of the building and to have been voted into office to serve there. [3]
Robertson is married to Julie McLeod and they have three children.[ citation needed ]
During his time as an electrician,Robertson became an organiser for the Electrical Trades Union. In 1991,he became an industrial officer with the Labor Council of New South Wales,and then its executive officer in 1998. Later in life,he took up tertiary studies,and studied at the University of Technology,Sydney,graduating with a Graduate Diploma of Human Resources.
In 1998,Robertson became the assistant secretary of the Labor Council,with responsibility for the building and construction industry,breweries,local government,public sector policy,the oil industry and Sydney Water. [4] In 2000,he ran the state wage case for the Labor Council before the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales. The case was historic in that it was the first one heard in Wollongong,New South Wales rather than Sydney. The Commission granted workers a $15 per week pay rise. [5]
In 2001,Robertson was elected unopposed as the secretary of Unions NSW (formerly the Labor Council of New South Wales),replacing Michael Costa. [6] One of his first acts as secretary was to organise a blockade of the New South Parliament to protest the introduction of workers compensation law reforms. [7] The blockade did not change the government's plans. During his term as secretary,Robertson headed the organisation as it sold its holiday property "Currawong" to finance a campaign to stop the implementation of WorkChoices by the Federal Howard government. The deal was said to have benefited the developers as the purchase was at "about half the price" [8] of other bids for the property. Currawong had been established in 1949 to allow the union movement to provide poor children with holidays. [8] Robertson denied the deal was at less than value,as it was an unconditional sale compared to other bids which were conditional on building approval.
Robertson has been on the Administrative Committee of the Australian Labor Party since 2005 and became the vice-president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) in 2006. As member of the group Labor for Refugees,Robertson fought in 2002 to overturn the Labor Party's policy on asylum seekers,which mimicked the policy of the Howard government at the time. [9] Robertson was a pivotal player in the campaign to replace Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley with Kevin Rudd in 2006. [7]
Robertson has held numerous other roles including member of the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payments Corporation in 1993 and director of WorkCover NSW between 2001 and 2007. In 2002,he was appointed as a director of the Parramatta Stadium Trust. In 2006,he became a member of the New South Wales Heritage Council. He was a director of Energy Australia between 1998 and 2003,as well as a director of 2KY radio between 1998 and 2001. [2]
Robertson co-authored the book Your Rights at Work,which was published in 1993.[ citation needed ]
On 18 October 2008,Robertson was endorsed to be the Labor Party candidate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of former state treasurer Michael Costa. [10] He was subsequently appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council (the state's upper house) to fill that casual vacancy. Costa was Robertson's predecessor at Unions NSW,and ironically,his role in blocking the privatisation of the NSW power industry was one of the causes that led to Costa's resignation. [7]
Shortly after Robertson's swearing in,former Australian prime minister Paul Keating sent a scathing letter to Robertson stating that Keating was "ashamed to share membership of the same party" as him. [11] Keating's view of Robertson was that his opposition to the privatisation bid would cost Labor dearly at the next State election. [12]
Robertson won the seat of Blacktown in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly at the March 2011 election,despite the Labor government suffering the worst defeat of a sitting government in New South Wales since Federation. Robertson himself barely squeaked into office in what has historically been a comfortably safe Labor seat;he suffered a swing of 18.7 percent,cutting the Labor majority down to a very marginal three percent. After Kristina Keneally announced she was standing down as state Labor leader and returning to the backbench,Robertson was heavily tipped to succeed her. [13] On 31 March,Robertson was elected unopposed as leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition. His immediate task was rebuilding a party that had seen its caucus more than halved in the election held a week earlier—a result that Robertson said the party deserved,calling it "a devastating result,a message that was sent to us." [14]
In the aftermath of the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis,it was revealed that Robertson had previously sent a letter on behalf of the gunman,Man Haron Monis,a constituent in his Blacktown electorate,to the Department of Family and Community Services. The letter was,according to Robertson,routine procedure on behalf of a constituent and written in support of Monis' request for a supervised visit with his children on Father's Day in 2011 despite an apprehended violence order against him. [15] The Department declined Monis' request. [16] Pressure mounted on Robertson to resign as Leader of the Labor Party,with the 2015 state election three months away. ABC News reported that several members of the Labor caucus were gathering support to have Robertson voted out if he didn't resign. [17] Robertson stood aside on 23 December 2014,saying that "the next election is so important that Labor must be united behind the leader. Robertson was initially replaced by Linda Burney on an interim basis,and then by Luke Foley. [18] [19] He was the first NSW Labor leader since Pat Hills not to go on to become premier,and only the third in almost a century not to take the party into an election.
On 3 August 2017,Robertson announced he would be resigning from parliament,which became effective on 25 August,to take up a position as executive general manager at Foodbank,a not-for-profit organisation which distributes excess food from retailers to the needy. [20]
John Philip Faulkner is an Australian former Labor Party politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1989 to 2015. He was a Cabinet Minister in the Keating,Rudd and Gillard governments.
William Arthur Holman was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920. He came to office as the leader of the Labor Party,but was expelled from the party in the split of 1916. He subsequently became the inaugural leader of the NSW branch of the Nationalist Party.
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.
Michael John Daley is an Australian politician and has been the Attorney-General of New South Wales since 28 March 2023. He was previously the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of New South Wales from November 2018 to March 2019. He is the member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Maroubra for the Australian Labor Party since 2005. Daley is aligned with the Labor Right faction.
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.
Eric Michael Roozendaal,a former Australian politician,was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council,serving between 2004 and 2013. He is a former General Secretary of the Labor Party. Roozendaal was the Treasurer of New South Wales,Minister of State and Regional Development,Minister of Ports and Waterways,Minister for the Illawarra,and Special Minister of State in the Rees and Keneally governments.
Linda Jean Burney is an Australian politician and is an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives,representing Barton since the 2016 federal election. She is Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Albanese ministry,and the first woman who identifies as Aboriginal to serve in that position.
Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally is an American-born Australian politician who served as the first female Premier of New South Wales from 2009 to 2011 and was later a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 until April 2022. She resigned from the Senate to contest the House of Representatives seat of Fowler,but was unsuccessful. From 2019 to 2022 she served as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate,Shadow Minister for Home Affairs,and Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.
Anthony Bernard Kelly is an Australian former politician,who was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council representing the Australian Labor Party from 1997 until 2011.
Verity Helen Firth is the Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Technology Sydney. She was the chief executive officer of the Public Education Foundation in Australia and is a former politician.
Nathan Rees is an Australian former politician who served as the 41st Premier of New South Wales and parliamentary leader of the New South Wales 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.
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.
The New South Wales Labor Party,officially known as the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch) and commonly referred to simply as NSW Labor,is the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The branch is the current ruling party in the state of New South Wales and is led by Chris Minns,who has served concurrently as premier of New South Wales since 2023.
Rodney Mark Cavalier is a former Australian politician,statutory officer and author. Cavalier was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Fuller between 1978 and 1981 and then Gladesville between 1981 and 1988 for the Labor Party. During his term in parliament,Cavalier was Minister for Energy,Minister for Finance,and Minister for Education in the Wran and Unsworth governments.
Luke Aquinas Foley is a former Australian Labor Party politician who served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of New South Wales from 2015 to 2018. Foley was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 19 June 2010 until his resignation to contest the Legislative Assembly seat of Auburn at the 2015 New South Wales election. Foley resigned after it was alleged that he had indecently assaulted an ABC journalist. Foley denies the allegations.
The Rees ministry was the 91st ministry of the Government of New South Wales,and was led by the 41st Premier Nathan Rees.
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 Keneally ministry is the 92nd ministry of the Government of New South Wales,and was led by the 42nd Premier Kristina Keneally.
An election for the leadership of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party,the party of opposition in the New South Wales,was held on 5 January 2015. The election was triggered following the resignation of Opposition Leader John Robertson on 23 December 2014.
Stephen Louis "Steve" Bali is an Australian politician. He has been a Labor member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing the Electoral District of Blacktown since a by-election held to replace former Labor leader John Robertson in late 2017. He previously served as the Mayor of Blacktown City Council between 2014 and 2019.
Media related to John Robertson (politician born 1962) at Wikimedia Commons