Michael Danby
Member of the Australian Parliament for Melbourne Ports
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 October 1998
Preceded by	Clyde Holding
Personal details
Born	(1955-02-16) 16 February 1955 (age 57) Melbourne, Victoria
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Alma mater	University of Melbourne, not completed
Occupation	Politician
Religion	Judaism

Michael David Danby (born 16 February 1955) is an Australian politician and has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the Division of Melbourne Ports, Victoria. Since July 2011 he has been chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade,^[1] a role which saw him represent the Prime Minister at the inauguration of the new nation of South Sudan in 2011.^[2] He is also a member of the World Movement for Democracy's Steering Committee.^[3]

Past experience[link]

Danby was born in Melbourne, Victoria and lives in Elwood, in his electorate. Danby attended Mount Scopus Memorial College and then studied Arts at Melbourne University but left without graduating. He was President of the Melbourne University Student Union as well as President of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students. From 1980 to 1983 he was an Australian Army Reserve officer cadet with Officer Cadet Training Unit, 3 Training Group, based at Albert Park and Puckapunyal.

From 1979 to 1983 Danby was manager of Halmaag Art Galleries in Malvern. He was Assistant Private Secretary to Barry Cohen, a minister in the Hawke government 1983-84, and Editor of the Australia-Israel Review in 1986-93. In 1985 he was senior vice-president of the International Youth Conference in Kingston, Jamaica. He was a ministerial adviser to Alan Griffiths, the Industry Minister in the Keating government, 1993-94. He was an industrial officer with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association 1994-96.

Political office[link]

In 1990 Danby ran as the Labor candidate for the safe Liberal seat of Goldstein against Dr David Kemp. In 1997 he won a hotly disputed Labor Party preselection battle for the right to contest Melbourne Ports, where the sitting member, Clyde Holding, was retiring, defeating Tim Pallas, now a Victorian opposition MP. At the 1998 election he won the seat and was re-elected, with slightly reduced majorities, in 2001 and 2004. In 2007 he gained a 3% 2CP swing to Labor and in 2010 secured a further 1% 2CP swing. Danby has only been a backbench MP for the whole of his parliamentary career to date. Danby was outspoken in his criticism of the Labor Party’s handling of the 2010 Election, attacking the Western Sydney focus of the Labor Party Campaign.^[4]

Electoral Matters Committee activities[link]

Danby was a member of the Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) from 1998 until 2010, and was Deputy Chair in 2006. He used this position to run a high profile campaign against the Howard Government's changes to Australian electoral law, which he argued restricted the ability of voters, particularly new voters, to enrol and vote. In an article in 2005, he wrote: "For 150 years Australia has been a world leader in progressive electoral reform... As a result Australia has one of the most open and accessible electoral systems in the world, and also a system with the highest reputation for integrity and transparency. Now, for the first time in living memory, an Australian government is going to wind the process back, for no good reason other than its own partisan advantage. They are going to make it more difficult for Australians to enrol and to vote."^[5] Soon after the 2010 Federal Election Danby drew attention to the fact that for various reasons 1.4 million eligible Australians had not voted, and criticised the Government for not having acted during its previous term to ensure greater voter turn-out.^[4]

Other parliamentary activities[link]

From 2008 to 2010 Danby was chair of the Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Migration.^[6] He was Chair of the Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade throughout the 42nd Parliament and was again chosen for this position in the 43rd parliament.^[7] He is also Chair of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for the United States,^[8] and the Parliamentary Group for Tibet.^[9]

In 2008 and 2009 the Migration Committee completed three major reports.^[10] These reports made numerous recommendations in relation to Australia’s immigration detention system, several of which of have been adopted by the Australian Government, including the recommendation that ‘detention debt’ should be abolished.^[11] Danby gained some media attention in late 2009 following his criticism of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's use of the term 'illegal immigrants' rather than 'asylum seekers'. Regarding use of the term 'illegal immigrants' he stated "I don't find these sort of populist expressions helpful in this debate."^[12]

In July 2009 in his role as Chair of the Parliamentary Group for Tibet, Michael Danby led the first ever delegation of Australian MPs and Senators to Dharamsala,^[13] India, the base of the Central Tibetan Administration. The group met with Dalai Lama, and other senior lamas, as well as numerous government Ministers. Michael Danby also gave a speech at the celebrations for the Dalai Lama’s 74th birthday entitled ‘Let freedom reign in Tibet’.^[14] The Chinese Government reacted angrily to the delegation's visit, saying the visit constituted interference in China's internal affairs.^[15]

Jewish representation[link]

Danby was the only Jewish member of the Australian Parliament from 1998 to 2007, when Mark Dreyfus, also from the ALP, was elected. He has frequently spoken in support of Israel. He supports a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine question. In May 2011 he said: "I am a strong supporter of Israel. Obviously also a strong supporter of a peace process there and a two-state solution, and I have that dialogue with a friends from Israel when I get the opportunity to.^[16]

In 2005 Danby was critical of a book by a Sydney Jewish atheist journalist, Antony Loewenstein, about the Australian Jewish community and its attitudes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which he regarded as anti Israeli propaganda.^[17] In a letter to the Australian Jewish News, Danby called on the book's publisher, Melbourne University Press, to "drop this whole disgusting project." He also called on the Jewish community to boycott the book. "I urge the Australian Jewish community, and particularly the Australian Jewish News, to treat it with dignified silence," he said.

In a speech to Federal Parliament in December 2008, Danby stated it was important to remember the names of victims of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Regarding the deaths of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, Rivka Holtzberg and the others killed at the Nariman House, Danby stated “I raise my voice in this national parliament and praise the memory of those innocent kedoshim who were killed in the Chabad House in Mumbai only because they were Jews.”^[18]

Danby has been a long time campaigner for Government funding of schools at risk of facing terrorist or other violent attacks. In a speech to the House of Representatives he welcomed the Australian Government’s $20 million funding program for schools at risk, and noted that a Sunday program that he had appeared on had sparked interest in the issue among many of his fellow MPs and Senators.^[19]

Other activities[link]

Danby was an outspoken supporter of the Australian National Academy of Music, opposing Arts Minister Peter Garrett’s decision to cut funding for the institution, which is in his electorate, in October 2008.^[20] Following a wide outcry the Government changed its decision to close the Academy and announced an additional $500,000 for the elite classical training centre.^[21]

Danby helped organise the visit of the Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer, to Australia for the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2009.^[22] The visit drew condemnation from the Chinese Government, but Danby criticised the Chinese Government for describing Kadeer as a terrorist,^[22] and argued that she was “a paradigm of non-violence" ^[23]

In September and October 2010 Michael Danby wrote a number of articles critical of ANU academic Hugh White’s Quarterly Essay entitled “Power Shift: Australia’s Future between Washington and Beijing”.In an article published in the Wall Street Journal Asia Danby was highly critical of White’s contention that Australia should support US military evacuation of South China Sea, and other possible zones of conflict with China.^[24]

In another article in The Australian (co-authored with foreign affairs experts Carl Ungerer and Peter Khalil), Danby warned against a ‘Munich Moment’ which would result if Australia followed White’s advice and decided that the price of China’s growing power was to cease “lecturing China about dissidents, Tibet or religious freedom".^[25]

White responded to these articles in both The Australian and the Australian Financial Review. However it seems Danby had the last word in the debate, publishing another article in the Australian Financial Review, which attacked White’s thesis as advocating “unprincipled appeasement”. Danby also accused White of holding ‘cold-blooded, Kissingerian views’, ‘treating China and the United States as if they were no more than a pair of traditional great-power rivals competing for territory or markets, like the Habsburg and Ottoman empires’.^[26]

In a Parliamentary Speech in October 2010 Danby pointed to calls for reform from within the highest echelons of the Chinese Communist Party as reason not to follow White’s approach.^[27]

In late 2010 Danby campaigned against major changes to the boundaries of the electorate of Melbourne Ports, as proposed by the Australian Electoral Commission. When the final boundaries were announced on 17 December 2010, the changes were significantly less drastic then had initially been canvassed.^[28]

Personal[link]

In February 2008 he and his longtime partner, barrister Amanda Mendes da Costa, were married at Parliament House, Canberra, the first Jewish wedding held in the building.^[29] He has two children from his first marriage. The divorce was the source of an unpleasant court case. He is a supporter of St Kilda Football Club and the Port Melbourne Boroughs.

References[link]

External links[link]

	Australia portal
	Biography portal
	Politics portal

• Michael Danby's homepage
• Search or browse Hansard for Michael Danby at OpenAustralia.org
• National Security Must Come Before Politics (Australian Financial Review) (pdf)
• The battle for Melbourne Ports - Australian Jewish News
• The Young Lib, the green T-shirt and the how-to-vote card - The Age

Joshua Anthony "Josh" Frydenberg (born 17 July 1971) is an Australian banker and politician. He has been the Liberal member for Kooyong in the Australian House of Representatives since August 2010.

Biography[link]

Frydenberg was born in Melbourne and educated at Bialik and Mount Scopus Colleges. His mother is a psychologist and University of Melbourne Professor, and his father is a general surgeon. He studied law and economics at Monash University, earning honours in both degrees, before working at Mallesons Stephen Jaques, a large Australian commercial law firm. He attended the University of Oxford on a Commonwealth scholarship, where he attained a Master of International Relations degree in 1998 and was a student at University College. He also attained the degree of Master of Public Administration at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.^[1]

In 1999 he worked as an assistant adviser to Attorney-General Daryl Williams before becoming an adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, a post he held until 2003. From 2003 to 2005 he was a policy adviser to Prime Minister John Howard, specialising in domestic security issues, border protection, justice and industrial relations. In 2005 he took up a position as a Director of Global Banking with Deutsche Bank in the company's Melbourne office.^[2]

2006 political candidacy[link]

In 2006 Frydenberg announced that he was seeking Liberal preselection for Kooyong, a safe Liberal seat in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The seat's incumbent member, Petro Georgiou, had held the seat since 1994. Kooyong is regarded as a Liberal "leadership seat": its three members before Georgiou were Andrew Peacock (leader of the Liberal Party 1983-85 and 1989–90), Sir Robert Menzies (founder of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister 1939-41 and 1949–66), and Sir John Latham (leader of the Nationalist Party 1929-31).

In the days leading to the preselection convention, Queensland frontbenchers Ian Macfarlane, Peter Dutton and Santo Santoro backed Frydenberg's credentials, for which they were criticised by former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.^[3]

The preselection was held at Trinity Grammar School on 23 April 2006. ^[4] Georgiou received 62 of the 85 Liberal Party delegates' votes, with Frydenberg receiving 22 votes and a third candidate, Alastair Armstrong, receiving one vote. After his defeat, Frydenberg was encouraged to run for preselection in the Division of Chisholm by Peter Costello, a marginal electorate neighbouring Kooyong; the seat was held by Anna Burke of the ALP, and was previously held by one of Frydenberg's mentors, Michael Wooldridge. Frydenberg declined the offer, saying, "This is where I am from, this is where I feel most comfortable and this is where I think there is real work to be done."^[5]

Parliamentary career[link]

After Georgiou had announced his intention to retire at the next election, Frydenberg won preselection to contest the seat of Kooyong after beating industrial lawyer John Pesutto at the Melbourne Convention Centre on 20 June 2009.^[6] At the 2010 federal election, he won the seat with 52.56% of the primary vote and 57.55% of the two party preferred vote.^[7]

In his maiden speech, he recounted the story of his grandparents' and great-aunt's migration to Australia from Nazi controlled Europe and lauded the contribution of migrants to communities within his electorate. He also enunciated his belief in small government, called for stronger ties with Asia while also maintaining a solid alliance with the US and proposed a target of having two Australian universities within the world's top ten by 2030.^[8]

References[link]

Lee Rhiannon
Senator for New South Wales
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2011
Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council
In office 27 March 1999 – 19 July 2010
Personal details
Born	Lee Brown (1951-05-30) 30 May 1951 (age 61) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Greens
Website	LeeRhiannon.org.au

Lee Rhiannon (born 30 May 1951), an Australian politician, is a Senator for New South Wales, elected at the 2010 federal election, representing the Australian Greens. Prior to her election to the Australian parliament, Rhiannon was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council, serving between 1999 and 2010, representing the NSW Greens.

Early life[link]

Lee Rhiannon was born Lee Brown, the daughter of Bill and Freda Brown, who were long-term members of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and later the Soviet-loyal Socialist Party. Her parents' membership of the CPA led to documentation of her life by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) from as early as the age of seven.^[1] She joined the Socialist Party around 1973.^[2]

She sat the New South Wales Higher School Certificate at Sydney Girls High School in 1969 and obtained a Bachelor of Science, majoring in botany and zoology with honours in botany, at the University of New South Wales, graduating in 1975.^[3]

During the 1970s Rhiannon was arrested during anti-apartheid protests. In the 1980s she helped organise the "peace camp" protest outside the joint US-Australian defence facility at Pine Gap, central Australia.^[4] According to Mark Aarons, she left the Socialist Party in the early 1980s.^[5] Rhiannon edited the Soviet-funded and backed newspaper Survey from 1988 until it ceased publication in 1990.^[6][7] She joined the Greens in 1990.^[3]

Lee Brown married Paddy O'Gorman, from whom she separated in 1987. They had three children. Following their separation, she adopted the surname "Rhiannon", the name of a figure from Welsh mythology.

Parliamentary career[link]

New South Wales[link]

Rhiannon contested the New South Wales Legislative Council at the 1999 state election for the Australian Greens. She was elected with three percent of the statewide vote (more than 100,000 votes), joining fellow Green Ian Cohen in the state's upper house of parliament.^[8] She was re-elected with over nine percent of the vote (more than 300,000 votes) at the 2007 state election, taking her seat with three other Greens MLCs.^[9]

Rhiannon used her New South Wales Parliamentary maiden speech in 1999 to announce her opposition to a development proposal by the Carr Labor Government for Walsh Bay. Rhiannon called on the Australian Labor Party to advance instead the Party's constitutional ideals for "redistribution of political and economic power" and "the development of public enterprises based upon... forms of social ownership". Rhiannon also spoke against Australia's British colonial legacy and announced that she was the first MLC to sit in the NSW Parliament without the title "honourable". She spoke of her family's involvement in the labour movement and acknowledged her parents' membership of the Communist Party of Australia and said she was proud of their tradition of "optimistic social activism". She reiterated Greens opposition to privatisation of public assets and to the Howard Government's Goods and Services Tax.^[3]

Rhiannon served on the following Committees in state parliament: General Purpose Standing Committees, Joint Select Committees on the Cross City Tunnel, a Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, a Standing Committee on Law and Justice, a Select Committee on the NSW Taxi Industry, a Select Committee on the Increase in Prisoner Population, and a Committee on the Office of the Ombudsman and Police Integrity Commission.^[3]

In November 2002, in the week prior to protests against the World Trade Organisation in Sydney, Rhiannon spoke in support of the protesters and organised a public conference on Civil Disobedience at NSW Parliament.^[10] Rhiannon spoke against police actions during the S11 Protests, which violently protested against meetings of the World Economic Forum in Melbourne in 2000. Rhiannon called on Police Minister Michael Costa to guarantee that police violence would not be used against protesters in Sydney. Costa in return called on Rhiannon to resign for hosting the civil disobedience seminar.^[11] Rhiannon lobbied the Vatican against considering the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, for the position of Pope because of his conservative views.^{[12][self-published source?]} In 2007 she referred him to the parliamentary privileges committee, alleging "contempt of parliament" for comments he made in opposition to embryonic stem cell research legislation.^[13][14]

During her term in the NSW Parliament, she was the Greens NSW Parliamentary spokesperson for the following portfolio areas:

Firearms; Donations; Mineral Resources; Roads; Transport; Health; Sexuality and Gender Identity; Electoral Issues; Industrial Relations; Attorney Generals; Parliamentary Process; Ports & Waterways; Gaming & Racing; Youth; South East NSW; Women; Animal Welfare; Rural Affairs; Science; and the Hunter region.^{[15][self-published source?]}

Federal parliament[link]

Rhiannon contested and won a seat in the Australian Senate for New South Wales at the 2010 federal election for the Australian Greens. She resigned from the NSW Legislative Council when the federal election was called,^[16] with a ballot of party members selecting Cate Faehrmann to fill the casual vacancy.^[17][18]

Rhiannon was elected with 10.7 percent of the statewide vote (more than 400,000 votes), a swing to the Greens in New South Wales of 2.3 percent since the previous federal election.^[19] She will share the balance of power with eight other Greens Senators from July 2011.^[20]

The NSW Greens State Conference prior to the 2011 NSW State Election adopted of a resolution in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.^[21] In support of the statement, Rhiannon said it was "motivated by the universal principles of freedom, justice and equal rights"^[21] and also "I see the value of that tactic as a way to promoting Palestinian human rights."^[22] Following the election, Federal leader Bob Brown said that he had conveyed his disapproval of this policy emphasis to Rhiannon.^[23] In December 2011, the NSW Greens abandoned their official support for an international boycott against Israel and resolved to actively support the Australian Greens position. Rhiannon said that this "recognises the legitimacy of the BDS campaign as a political tactic and also recognises that there is a diversity of views in the community and the Greens."^[24][25]

Announcing portfolio responsibilities for the Australian Greens in June 2011, Bob Brown allocated Rhiannon the following portfolios:^[26]

Democracy; Local Government; Higher Education; Assisting on National Security; Women; International Aid and Development; Animal Welfare; and Forests.

Other political and community engagement[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• NSW Greens Homepage
• Australian Greens Homepage
• Text of Maiden Speech by Rhiannon to NSW Parliament
• LeeRhiannon.org.au - official website

Senator Barnaby Joyce
Australian Senator for Queensland
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2005
Preceded by	Len Harris
Personal details
Born	(1967-04-17) 17 April 1967 (age 45) Tamworth, New South Wales
Political party	National Party of Australia, Liberal National Party of Queensland
Spouse(s)	Natalie Joyce
Alma mater	The University of New England (BCA)
Profession	Accountant
Religion	Roman Catholic
Military service
Service/branch	Australian Army Reserve
Years of service	1994-1999
Unit	Royal Queensland Regiment

Barnaby Thomas Gerald Joyce (born 17 April 1967), Australian politician, has been a member of the Australian Senate representing the state of Queensland since July 2005. He represented the National Party of Australia until the Queensland divisions of the Liberal and National parties merged into the Liberal National Party of Queensland in 2008, although remains Leader of the National Party in the Senate. He is known for being a highly independent member of his party, having crossed the floor 19 times under the Howard coalition government.^[1]

On 17 September 2008, Joyce succeeded Nigel Scullion as the Leader of the National Party in the Senate.^[2]

Early life[link]

His father, James Joyce, was a New Zealander who moved to Australia to study veterinary science at the University of Sydney, where he met Barnaby's mother, Marie, and they made their living as farmers.^[3]

Barnaby Joyce was born in Tamworth, New South Wales, and was brought up at Woolbrook.^[4] One of six children from a sheep-and-cattle farming family,^[3] he attended St Ignatius' College, Riverview, in Sydney.

Joyce graduated with a commerce degree from the University of New England in Armidale,^[3] and served in the Australian Army Reserve from 1994 to 1999. At university Joyce met his wife, Natalie, and they married in 1993. After graduating, Joyce moved around northern New South Wales and Queensland, and at one point worked as a bouncer.^[3] Joyce worked in the accounting profession before entering Parliament and is an FCPA (Fellow of CPA Australia). The Joyces have four daughters and now live in St George in western Queensland, where Joyce had an accounting business.^[3]

A Roman Catholic, Joyce served as President of the St George branch of the Society of St Vincent de Paul 1998–2004.

Political views[link]

Senator Joyce holds conservative views on most moral and social issues. Joyce is pro-life and was a prominent voice in the parliamentary debate against the introduction of the drug RU-486. He has also consistently opposed the use of capital punishment. He took offence at a pamphlet put out by Family First candidate Danny Nalliah, which identified bottle shops, brothels, masonic lodges, mosques, and Hindu and Buddhist temples as "strongholds of Satan", and said that he did not want the preferences of such a party. Joyce criticised the party, calling them "the lunatic Right", and saying that "these are not the sort of people you do preference deals with".^[5] Nonetheless he gained office with preference flows from Family First Party, among many others including Pauline Hanson.

On the economy, Senator Joyce has often earned the ire of his economic rationalist parliamentary colleagues in the Liberal Party of Australia. Joyce has taken up a number of causes often labelled as populist, such as his support for the retention of a single-desk wheat export marketing system for Australian grain growers, drought assistance for primary producers, and amendments to the Trade Practices Act 1974 and media reform regulations that aim to strengthen the ability of small business to compete with multi-national corporations. When questioned on his views, he stated "Maybe I'm an agrarian socialist, I don't know, is there a problem with being an agrarian socialist?".^[6]

On 17 March 2009, Joyce launched a privately funded advertisement campaign to keep Rio Tinto local, attacking a bid by the Chinese government-owned resources company Chinalco, a bid which has also been heavily criticised by Legal & General in the United Kingdom.^[7]

In August 2011 Joyce spoke at an anti same-sex marriage rally, claiming that same-sex marriage legislation would affect his daughters' rights to marry men. In response Senator Sarah Hanson-Young stated "There is nothing in my Marriage Equality Bill that would prevent Senator Joyce's daughters from getting married to the partner of their choice, rather than taking rights away, the bill extends the rights to all couples."^[8]

Senate service[link]

Senator Joyce's office in St George

Joyce was elected to the Senate in the 2004 election, his term commencing on 1 July 2005. His term will run until 30 June 2011. Joyce regained the seat that the Nationals lost to the One Nation Party in 1998, defeating the One Nation Senator Len Harris. The Liberals won three seats in Queensland, making this the first time since the enlargement of the Senate in 1984 that a party or coalition had won four of the six available Senate seats from a single state.

Joyce won 6.5 percent of the vote on first preferences (see Australian electoral system), well short of the 14.3 percent required for election, but made up for lost ground by the flow of second preferences from eliminated candidates of the Family First and One Nation parties, as well as from the independent candidate, Pauline Hanson. The count attracted considerable media attention because Joyce's election contributed to the ruling Coalition government having control of the Senate for the first time since 1981, a result that few political commentators had expected.

Joyce said before taking his seat in July 2005 that he would not be a cipher and that the government should not take his support for granted.^{[citation needed]} In particular, he initially expressed misgivings about the government's proposed sale of Telstra, the partially state-owned telecommunications company, and claimed that he would vote against the sale unless he and the rest of the party were satisfied that its service in rural areas was adequate and that privatisation would not adversely affect it.

Joyce's maiden speech to the Senate on 16 August 2005 was widely reported in the Queensland media. He expressed his desire to see the power of Australia's retailing duopoly, Coles Myer and Woolworths Limited, reduced so as to protect small business and consumer rights. He also espoused the virtues of free enterprise, particularly at the small business and family-owned business level. As well, having earlier told a Right to Life conference in July that his greatest goal in public life was to ban "the unfortunate carnage" of abortion, he used his first speech to identify abortion as the "slavery debate of our time".

Joyce in 2007

On 17 August 2005 the Government announced a package of $3 billion to improve telecommunications services in regional and rural areas. On the basis of this, the National Party, including Joyce, agreed to support the sale of Telstra. This led the Labor Party to label Joyce "Backdown Barney" and "Barnaby Rubble" in an acrimonious parliamentary debate. Joyce voted with the Government in the Senate on 14 September 2005, to sell the Government's remaining share of Telstra. As the Telstra Sale Legislation had been pursued by the lower house in prior parliamentary sessions with no assistance package for regional Australia it is Joyce who is credited for negotiating and holding out till the multi billion dollar assistance package was delivered so as to attain his vote in the Senate.

Senator Joyce crossed the floor to vote with the ALP and minor parties on 11 October 2005 on two motions concerning the Trade Practices Act 1974. Although both motions were lost 32–32, it was the first time since 1986 that a Government Senator has crossed the floor.

Joyce also said that he would not support the Government's "Voluntary Student Unionism" Bill banning the levying of compulsory service or amenity fees by universities without amendment because he believed it would unfairly disadvantage regional universities^{[citation needed]}. However, Joyce was unsuccessful in his attempt to amend the bill, and subsequently crossed the floor on 9 December 2005 to oppose it. This was ultimately futile as the Government had secured the vote of Family First Senator Steve Fielding.

One of Senator Joyce's major successes was the passage of the Birdsville Amendment, outlawing predatory pricing of big retailers against small business and the capping of share ownership on the sale of Medibank Private to 15% to keep it in Australians hands as well as being at the forefront of the fight to keep Qantas as an Australian publicly listed company.

In October 2006 he again crossed the floor, unsuccessfully moving amendments to the government's cross media ownership laws.^[9]

In May 2006 Joyce promoted mining of Antarctica (mining is banned under the Antarctic Treaty). Joyce justified his proposal by saying:

There's minerals there, there's gold, there's iron ore, there's coal, there's huge fish resources and what you have to ask is: 'Do I turn my head and allow another country to exploit my resource ... or do I position myself in such a way as I'm going to exploit it myself before they get there'.^[10]

The only practising accountant in the coalition, he has a bluntness to the economic debate that raises the ire of his colleagues but has interested the media such as with his statement on the Rudd Labor government's first stimulus package in 2008, supported at the time by the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, that it would "be spread across the floor on Christmas Day with 'Made in China' written on the back".^[11] The Coalition backed Joyce's position of rejecting later stimulus packages.

In September 2008, Joyce replaced CLP Senator and Nationals deputy leader Nigel Scullion as Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, and stated that his party in the upper house would no longer necessarily vote with their Liberal counterparts in the upper house, which opens up another possible avenue for the government to get legislation through.^[12][13][14] He was able to gain the majority support of the five Nationals (including one CLP) Senators through Fiona Nash and John Williams, with Nash giving Scullion the tap on the shoulder. The takeover was not expected nor revealed to the party until after it took place.^[15]

In February 2010 Joyce declared that Australia was "going to hock to our eyeballs to people overseas" and was "getting to a point where we can't repay it". This led to a response from the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens, that he had "yet to meet a finance minister (sic) who has ever mused any possibility about debt default of his own country" and that there were "few things less likely than Australia defaulting on its sovereign debt".^[16]

Joyce was re-elected in the 2010 election on a joint LNP ticket with Senators Brandis and Mason and is the Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Water and retained the role as leader of the Nationals in the Senate.^[17]

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2009)

External links[link]

• Barnaby Joyce's official Senate home page – includes transcript of maiden speech

Wikinews has related news: Key Australian senator Barnaby Joyce crosses floor for first time

• Joyce digs in for keeps to set up Telstra fund (Sydney Morning Herald, 1 August 2005)
• Joyce stands by Telstra vote (7.30 Report, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 14 September 2005)

Stuart Rowland Robert (born 11 December 1970) Australian politician, was elected the Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives seat of Fadden at the 2007 election on 24 November 2007, following the retirement of the previous member, the Hon David Jull. Following the merger of The Nationals and the Liberal Party in Queensland, Robert was re-elected in 2010 for the Liberal National Party.