Jess Walsh

Last updated

Dr Jess Walsh
JWHeadshotCrop.jpg
Senator for Victoria
Assumed office
1 July 2019
Personal details
Born (1971-05-16) 16 May 1971 (age 52)
Melbourne, Victoria
NationalityAustralian
Political party Labor
Alma mater University of Melbourne (PhD, 2002)
University of Southern California (MA, 1997)
OccupationResearcher, trade unionist
Website www.jesswalsh.com.au

Jessica Cecille Walsh [1] (born 16 May 1971) is an Australian politician and trade unionist. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has served as a Senator for Victoria since 2019. Prior to her election to parliament she was the state secretary of United Voice.

Contents

Early life

Walsh was born in Melbourne. [2] She grew up in the suburb of North Balwyn. [3] She holds the degrees of Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) from the University of Melbourne, Master of Arts from the University of Southern California, and Doctor of Philosophy in economic geography from the University of Melbourne. [2] Her doctoral thesis was titled "Organising the low-wage service sector: labour, community and urban politics in the United States". [4]

Walsh is one of eleven MPs in the 46th Parliament of Australia who possesses a PhD, the others being Katie Allen, Fiona Martin, Anne Aly, Andrew Leigh, Daniel Mulino, Jim Chalmers, Adam Bandt, Mehreen Faruqi, Anne Webster and Helen Haines. [5]

Career

From 1998 to 2000 Walsh was a research fellow at two progressive think tanks in the United States, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Economic Policy Institute. [2] There she researched "the loss of decent, stable manufacturing jobs and the growth in their place of low-paid and insecure work in service industries". [3] After returning to Australia, Walsh worked as a researcher and organiser for the Victorian branch of United Voice from 2002 to 2006. She then served as assistant state secretary from 2006 to 2007 and as state secretary from 2007 to 2019. [2]

Walsh was elected to the Senate at the 2019 federal election. She serves as Chair of the Senate Economics Committee and is a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. [6]

Politics

Walsh joined the ALP in 2005. In 2018 she won ALP preselection for the Senate in second position on the party's ticket in Victoria. The party's left faction demoted incumbent senator Gavin Marshall to the third spot after Raff Ciccone and Walsh. [7]

Personal life

Walsh has two residential properties in Melbourne and South Gippsland. [8] She has an investment property in Byron Bay. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic Labor Party (Australia, 1955)</span> Former political party in Australia

The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) was an Australian political party. The party came into existence following the 1955 ALP split as the Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist), and was renamed the Democratic Labor Party in 1957. In 1962, the Queensland Labor Party, a breakaway party of the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party, became the Queensland branch of the DLP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Macklin</span> Australian politician

Jennifer Louise Macklin is an Australian former politician. She was elected to federal parliament at the 1996 federal election and served as the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2001 to 2006, under opposition leaders Simon Crean, Mark Latham and Kim Beazley. After the ALP won government at the 2007 election, she held ministerial office under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, serving as Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (2007–2013) and Minister for Disability Reform (2011–2013). She retired from parliament at the 2019 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear Disarmament Party</span> Political party in Australia

The Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) was an Australian political party formed in June 1984. It was founded by medical researcher Michael Denborough as the political arm of the Australian anti-nuclear movement, which had been active since the early 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doris Blackburn</span> Australian political activist, legislator

Doris Amelia Blackburn was an Australian social reformer and politician. She served in the House of Representatives from 1946 to 1949, the second woman after Enid Lyons to do so. Blackburn was a prominent socialist and originally a member of the Labor Party. She was married to Maurice Blackburn, a Labor MP, but he was expelled from the party in 1937 and she resigned from the party in solidarity. Her husband died in 1944, and she was elected to his former seat at the 1946 federal election – the first woman elected to parliament as an independent. However, Blackburn served only a single term before being defeated. She later served as president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cain (34th Premier of Victoria)</span> Australian politician (1882–1957)

John Cain was an Australian politician, who became the 34th premier of Victoria, and was the first Labor Party leader to win a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He is the only premier of Victoria to date whose son has also served as premier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Tangney</span> Australian politician

Dame Dorothy Margaret Tangney DBE was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1943 to 1968. She was the first woman elected to the Senate and one of the first two women elected to federal parliament, along with Enid Lyons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Melzer</span> Australian politician

Jean Isabel Melzer (née McLeod); 7 February 1926 – 18 June 2013) was an Australian politician and activist. She was a Senator for Victoria from 1974 to 1981, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). A long-time supporter of the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, she left the party in 1984 over its failure to ban uranium mining and stood unsuccessfully for the Nuclear Disarmament Party at the 1984 federal election.

The Victorian Socialist Party (VSP), also known as the Socialist Party of Victoria, was a socialist political party in the Australian state of Victoria during the early 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn Sterle</span> Australian politician

Glenn Sterle is an Australian politician. A former trade union organiser, he has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian Senate since 2005, representing the state of Western Australia.

William Albert Landeryou was an Australian trade unionist and politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served in the Victorian Legislative Council from 1976 to 1992, including as a minister in the Labor government of John Cain. Before entering politics he was a senior official in the Storemen and Packers' Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1919 Australian federal election</span> Australian federal election

The 1919 Australian federal election was held on 13 December 1919 to elect members to the Parliament of Australia. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party government won re-election, with Prime Minister Billy Hughes continuing in office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Barker (politician)</span> Australian politician

Stephen Barker was an Australian trade unionist and politician. Born in Sussex, he received a primary education before becoming a tailor. He migrated to Australia where he became an organiser of the Tramways Union. He served as secretary of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council from 1901 to 1910. In 1910, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Labor Senator from Victoria. He was defeated in 1919 but re-elected in 1922. However, he died in 1924, and Joseph Hannan was appointed as his replacement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Kennelly</span> Australian politician

Patrick John Kennelly was an Australian politician. Born in Melbourne, he was educated at Catholic schools before becoming a clerk in the Australian Labor Party (ALP) office in Melbourne.

John Albert Little was an Australian politician. Born in Maryborough, Victoria, he was educated at East Brunswick and Thornbury state primary Schools, before becoming a clicker in a shoe factory in Collingwood, and later an official with the Victorian Boot Employees' Union, of which he was Federal President in 1944 and 1945. In 1952, was awarded a Commonwealth Bank Scholarship for six months, to study unionism and working conditions in the UK, Europe and the US. In 1954, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Melbourne North, representing the Labor Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Henderson</span> Australian politician and journalist (born 1964)

Sarah Moya Henderson is an Australian politician, lawyer and former journalist. She has been a Senator for Victoria since September 2019, representing the Liberal Party. She previously held the Division of Corangamite in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Lines</span> Australian politician

Susan Lines is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for Western Australia since 2013, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the current President of the Australian Senate, having previously been Deputy President of the Senate from 2016. Before entering politics she was the assistant national secretary of United Voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raff Ciccone</span> Australian politician

Raffaele "Raff" Ciccone is an Australian politician who is a Senator for Victoria, representing the Australian Labor Party. He was appointed to the Senate on 6 March 2019 following the resignation of Jacinta Collins, becoming the 100th Senator to represent the state of Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jana Stewart</span> Australian politician

Jana Naretha Anne Stewart is an Australian politician and former public servant. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was appointed as a Senator for Victoria in April 2022, filling the vacancy caused by the death of Kimberley Kitching.

Linda White was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was elected to the Senate as the party's lead candidate in Victoria at the 2022 federal election, to a term beginning on 1 July 2022. She was a lawyer and trade unionist before entering politics, including serving as the assistant national secretary of the Australian Services Union (ASU) from 1995 till 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic Labour Party (Australia, 1978)</span> Political party

The Democratic Labour Party (DLP), formerly known as the Democratic Labor Party of Australia, is an Australian political party. It was formed in 1978 by members of the original Democratic Labour Party which broke off from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) as a result of the 1955 ALP split.

References

  1. "Qualification checklist" (PDF). Australian Electoral Commission. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Senator Jess Walsh". Senators and Members of the Parliament of Australia . Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  3. 1 2 "First speech". Hansard. Parliament of Australia. 11 September 2019. Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  4. "Organising the low-wage service sector : labour, community and urban politics in the United States". University of Melbourne Library. University of Melbourne. Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  5. "Pathways to Parliament". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 20 January 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  6. "Australian Parliament House". Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  7. Remeikis, Amy (23 July 2018). "Victorian Labor senator's dumping could have ramifications in Queensland". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 June 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  8. 1 2 "The private interests of Senator Jess Walsh". openpolitics.au. Retrieved 10 May 2024.