Verity Helen Firth (born 28 August 1973) is the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Education Foundation in Australia and a former politician.

Firth served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Balmain for the Australian Labor Party from 2007 to 2011. During this period, she served as Minister for Women, Minister for Science and Medical Research, and Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Cancer) from 2007 to 2008, Minister for Climate Change and the Environment in 2008, and as the Minister for Education and Training from 2009 to 2011.

Firth became a member of the Labor Party at the age of 15. She studied at North Sydney Girls' High between 1986 and 1991, before studying Arts/Law at the University of Sydney between 1992 and 1998. While at university, she was active in student politics. After graduating, she worked as a political staffer, prior to working as an articled clerk at Slater & Gordon in 2001; she then worked as a campaign organiser for the Australian Labor Party (2001-2004). Between 2004 and 2007, she practised as a solicitor with Slater & Gordon, specialising in asbestos litigation and industrial law.

Tanya Joan Plibersek, MP (born 2 December 1969), is an Australian politician with the Australian Labor Party, and Federal Minister for Health. She has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the seat of Sydney, New South Wales. Plibersek is the first Slovene Australian to reach the position of a minister in the Australian government.

Plibersek was born in Sydney, the daughter of migrants from Slovenia, and was dux of Jannali Girls High School.^{[self-published source?]} She was educated at the University of Technology, Sydney and Macquarie University, where she gained a master's degree in politics and public policy. Before entering Parliament, she was Women's Officer at the University of Technology, Sydney and worked for the Domestic Violence Unit at the NSW Government's Office for the Status and Advancement of Women as well as the office of Senator Bruce Childs. She lives in Sydney with her husband Michael Coutts-Trotter. and children Anna, Joseph and Louis.

Phillip John "Phil" Costa (born 24 July 1949) is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2007 until 2011, representing the electorate of Wollondilly. He served as Minister for Water and Minister for Corrective Services.

Costa was born on 24 July 1949 at Guildford, New South Wales. Prior to his election he was a primary school teacher and principal of public schools in the Oaks and Buxton. He was named the Citizen of the Year in Wollondilly Shire in 1984.

Costa was first elected to Wollondilly Shire Council in 1985; he continued serving on the Council until 2008. He served as Deputy Mayor from 1999 to 2005 before being elected as Mayor from 2006 to 2007, immediately prior to the 2007 state election.

Costa initially planned to stand as an independent candidate in the 2007 state election but was persuaded by Premier Morris Iemma to stand instead for the Australian Labor Party. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly on 24 March 2007 with 53% of the vote. From June 2007 to September 2008, he was a member of the State Parliament's Standing Committee on Parliamentary Privilege and Ethics and Chair of the Standing Committee on Broadband in Rural and Regional Communities.

Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He also served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2012. A member of the Australian Labor Party, Rudd has served in the House of Representatives since the 1998 federal election, representing Griffith, Queensland.

Rudd was born in Queensland and grew up on a dairy farm. He joined the Australian Labor Party at the age of 15 and was dux of Nambour State High School in 1974. He studied an arts degree in Asian studies at the Australian National University, majoring in Chinese language and Chinese history. In 1981, he married Thérèse Rein and they have three children. He worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs from 1981 and from 1988 he was Chief of Staff to the Queensland Labor Opposition Leader and later Premier, Wayne Goss. After the Goss government lost office in 1995, Rudd was hired as a Senior China Consultant by the accounting firm KPMG Australia.