Michael O'Brien | |
---|---|
Minister for Finance | |
In office 21 October 2011 –6 February 2014 | |
Premier | Jay Weatherill |
Succeeded by | Jay Weatherill |
Minister for Police | |
In office 21 January 2013 –6 February 2014 | |
Preceded by | Jennifer Rankine |
Succeeded by | John Rau |
Minister for Correctional Services | |
In office 21 January 2013 –6 February 2014 | |
Preceded by | Jennifer Rankine |
Succeeded by | John Rau |
Minister for Emergency Services | |
In office 21 January 2013 –6 February 2014 | |
Preceded by | Jennifer Rankine |
Succeeded by | Ian Hunter |
Minister for Road Safety | |
In office 21 January 2013 –6 February 2014 | |
Preceded by | Jennifer Rankine |
Succeeded by | Ian Hunter |
Member for Napier Parliament of South Australia | |
In office 9 February 2002 –15 March 2014 | |
Preceded by | Annette Hurley |
Succeeded by | Jon Gee |
Personal details | |
Born | 10 April 1949 |
Political party | Labor Party |
Spouse | Jane |
Michael O'Brien (born 10 April 1949) was the Labor member for Napier in the South Australian House of Assembly from 2002 to 2014. He was Minister for Finance,Minister for Police,Minister for Emergency Services,Minister for Correctional Services and Minister for Road Safety. [1]
O'Brien was elevated to Cabinet on 2 March 2009 with Tom Koutsantonis following the resignations of Rory McEwen and Carmel Zollo. [2] He resigned from Cabinet on 31 January 2014,at which time he also announced that he would not contest the 2014 South Australian election.
Before entering parliament,O'Brien was a national manager with Elders IXL and held senior executive positions with the Royal Automobile Association (RAA) and University of Adelaide. He and his wife were small/medium business operators for 16 years.
O'Brien has Bachelor of Arts and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Adelaide. He has also attended the Kennedy School at Harvard University. When he entered Parliament in 2002,O'Brien was the only Labor MP with an extensive background in business and the private sector.
In his maiden speech,O'Brien reflected on the short history of his electorate,which was born from the Playford Government's drive to establish a strong manufacturing sector in South Australia. O'Brien noted that Federal Government policies to dismantle tariffs had caused adverse economic and social impacts. [3]
In 2007,O'Brien was appointed chair of the State Planning Review,which developed the 30-year Plan for Greater Adelaide. Launched in 2010,the plan prepares for steady population growth of 560,000 people,the construction of 258,000 more dwellings,the creation of 282,000 jobs,and economic growth of $128 billion by 2040. [4]
O'Brien also convened the Premier's Food Council,was chair of the Riverland Futures Taskforce and co-chair of the SA Business Development Council. In the first Rann Government,O'Brien was parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Transport.
Initially entering Cabinet as Minister for Road Safety and Minister for Employment,Training and Further Education and Minister for Science and Information Economy,O'Brien was promoted to the portfolios of Agriculture,Food and Fisheries,Forests and Regional Development in March 2010. [1]
As Minister for Regional Development he launched the $20 million Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund in September 2010. O'Brien said the Government aimed to achieve about $500 million of investment in the Riverland over the next 20 years. [5]
As Minister for Agriculture,O'Brien established an Agribusiness Council comprising high-level business and industry leaders to advise the government on policy issues and opportunities for growth. [6] O'Brien advocated strongly on behalf of the state's apple industry after the Federal Government lifted restrictions on the import of New Zealand fruit. [7]
He also led a national push to introduce mandatory stunning of livestock killed according to Hal-lal and Kosher traditions,which won acclaim from animal welfare activists,however the proposal failed to gain the support of all states and the Commonwealth. [8]
As Minister for Forests,O'Brien faced hostility in the South East of the state when he advanced the government's plans to forward sell harvest rights [9]
In November 2010,O'Brien clashed in Parliament with then Treasurer Kevin Foley,who accused him of creating "unnecessary anxiety" over the planned forward sale. Opponents of the plan,however,credited O'Brien with revealing details and being upfront with community members. [10]
Later in November 2010,Foley and Premier Mike Rann required a police escort to enter the Labor Party State Convention as union anger with budget cuts boiled over. O'Brien told journalists it was time for a change of leadership and refused to back Foley. "I am saying that the time has now arrived for both factions to sit down and seriously discuss the issue of leadership succession," he said. [11]
Foley stood down as Deputy Premier and Treasurer in February 2011 and left Cabinet in October 2011 when Jay Weatherill became Premier.
Weatherill,from the minority Left faction,rewarded O'Brien for his cross-factional support and elevated him to the key portfolios of Finance and Public Sector. [12]
In January 2013,Weatherill further promoted O'Brien to the portfolios of Police,Emergency Services,Correctional Services and Road Safety,while retaining him in Finance. [1]
It was announced in January 2014 that O'Brien offered his state seat of Napier to Don Farrell,to contest for Labor at the 2014 election. O'Brien resigned from his ministerial roles and would leave parliament at the 2014 election. [13] [14] Premier Jay Weatherill threatened to resign if Farrell was successfully preselected. [15] [16] A few hours later,Farrell withdrew his nomination. [17]
Michael David Rann,,is an Australian former politician who was the 44th premier of South Australia from 2002 to 2011. He was later Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2014,and Australian ambassador to Italy,Albania,Libya and San Marino from 2014 to 2016.
Kevin Owen Foley is a former South Australian politician who served as 11th Deputy Premier of South Australia and additionally Treasurer of South Australia in the Rann government from 2002 to 2011 for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party. He is the longest-serving deputy premier and the third longest-serving treasurer in South Australian history.
Jane Diane Lomax-Smith,AM is an Australian politician and histopathologist who has been the Lord Mayor of the City of Adelaide since 14 November 2022. She was previously in local government for nine years,as a councillor for three terms and Lord Mayor of Adelaide for two terms. She was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Adelaide representing the Labor Party from 2002 to 2010,and throughout this time was a Minister of Education and Tourism and a range of other portfolios. In 2010–2011,she was the Interim Director of the Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus). Since 2011,she has been the chair of the Board of the South Australian Museum.
John Robert Rau SC is an Australian barrister and politician. He was the 12th Deputy Premier of South Australia from 2011 to 2018 and 48th Attorney-General of South Australia from 2010 to 2018 for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party in the Weatherill cabinet. Rau was the Labor member of the House of Assembly seat of Enfield from the 2002 election until announcing his intention to retire from Parliament on 10 December 2018,and submitting his resignation on 17 December 2018.
Jay Wilson Weatherill is a former Australian politician who was the 45th Premier of South Australia,serving from 21 October 2011 until 19 March 2018. Weatherill represented the House of Assembly seat of Cheltenham as a member of the South Australian Labor Party from the 2002 election to 17 December 2018,when he retired.
Robert Bruce Such was a South Australian politician. He was the member for the seat of Fisher in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1989 until his death in 2014. He defeated Labor MP Philip Tyler at the 1989 election and was a member of the Liberals until 2000 when he became an independent. Such was Minister for Employment,Training and Further Education,and Minister for Youth Affairs,in the Brown Liberal government from 1993 to 1996. He served as Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly for the Rann Labor government from 2005 to 2006. Such was joint Father of the House with Michael Atkinson from 2012.
Martin Leslie James Hamilton-Smith is a former Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Waite from the 1997 election until his retirement in 2018. First elected as a candidate for the Liberal Party,Hamilton-Smith was the state parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party and the Leader of the Opposition in South Australia from 2007 to 2009,and a Minister in the Kerin Liberal government from 2001 to 2002.
Anastasios "Tom" Koutsantonis is an Australian politician in the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party,representing the seats of West Torrens (2002−current) and Peake (1997−2002) as a Labor member in the South Australian House of Assembly.
John James "Jack" Snelling is a former Australian politician. He was the Labor member for the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Playford from the 1997 election until his retirement in 2018. Snelling left the Labor Party in 2021 to found the Family First Party.
Donald Edward Farrell is an Australian politician and former trade unionist. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has been Minister for Trade and Tourism and Special Minister of State in the Albanese government since 2022. He has served as a Senator for South Australia since 2016,after a previous term from 2008 to 2014.
Bernard Vincent Finnigan is an Australian former politician who served as a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 2006 until 2015. He was appointed in May 2006 as a member of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party to the Legislative Council in a casual vacancy triggered by the death of Terry Roberts. Elected at the 2010 election,Finnigan briefly served in the Rann government cabinet from February until April in 2011,when Labor suspended him from the party,sitting thereafter as an independent backbencher until his 2015 parliamentary resignation. He was the Acting Police Minister at the time of his arrest.
Arts South Australia was responsible for managing the South Australian Government's funding for the arts and cultural heritage from about 1996 until late 2018,when it was progressively dismantled,a process complete by early 2019. Most of its functions were taken over by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (DPC) under Premier Steven Marshall,while some went to the Department of Education and others to the Department for Innovation and Skills.
The 2014 South Australian state election elected members to the 53rd Parliament of South Australia on 15 March 2014,to fill all 47 seats in the House of Assembly and 11 of 22 seats in the Legislative Council. The 12-year-incumbent Australian Labor Party (SA) government,led by Premier Jay Weatherill,won its fourth consecutive four-year term in government,a record 16 years of Labor government,defeating the opposition Liberal Party of Australia (SA),led by Opposition Leader Steven Marshall.
Steven Spence Marshall is an Australian politician who served as the 46th premier of South Australia between 2018 and 2022. He has been a member of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia in the South Australian House of Assembly since 2010,representing the electorate of Dunstan.
Peter Bryden Malinauskas is an Australian politician serving as the 47th and current premier of South Australia since March 2022. He has been the leader of the South Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and a member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for the division of Croydon since April 2018. He was previously the Leader of the Opposition from 2018 until he led his party into government in the 2022 state election.
Susan Elizabeth Close is an Australian politician,who is currently the Deputy Premier of South Australia since March 2022. She also holds the ministerial portfolios of Minister for Climate,Environment and Water,Minister for Industry,Innovation and Science and Minister for Defence and Space Industries while as Deputy Premier.
Kyam Joseph Maher is an Australian politician and lawyer who has been Attorney-General of South Australia and the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council since March 2022. He was appointed to a casual vacancy in the South Australian Legislative Council for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party on 17 October 2012. He previously served in the Cabinet of South Australia between 2015 and 2018 and was the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council between 2016 and 2018.
The Rann government was the state executive government of South Australia led by Premier of South Australia Mike Rann of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2002 to 2011.
The Weatherill Ministry was the 72nd Ministry of the Government of South Australia,led by Jay Weatherill of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party. It commenced on 21 October 2011,when Weatherill succeeded Mike Rann as Premier and Labor leader.
The South Australian Labor Party,officially known as the Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch) and commonly referred to simply as South Australian Labor,is the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party,originally formed in 1891 as the United Labor Party of South Australia. It is one of two major parties in the bicameral Parliament of South Australia,the other being the Liberal Party of Australia (SA Division).