Michael Danby

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Michael Danby
Michael Danby

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.

Danby was born in Melbourne, Victoria and was educated at Melbourne University. 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.

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 government minister. 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% swing to Labor. He was an Opposition Whip from 2001 to 2007.

Danby has been a member of the Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) since 1998, 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."[1]

Young Michael Danby (third to the right) and Young Peter Costello (first on the left) in the Balaclava Branch of Australian Young Labor Movement
Young Michael Danby (third to the right) and Young Peter Costello (first on the left) in the Balaclava Branch of Australian Young Labor Movement

Danby was the only Jewish member of the Australian Parliament until 2007, when Mark Dreyfus was elected. He has frequently spoken in support of Israel and in opposition to antisemitism and other forms of racism. In 2005 he 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.[2] 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.

Danby has sometimes been accused of being hostile to Muslims or to Islam. He countered this accusation in an article in the Australian Financial Review in November 2005 (see link to article below). According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, he was one of only three Labor MPs not to sign a letter to the US Congress demanding the release of David Hicks.[3]

Danby lives in Elwood, in his electorate. 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.[4] He has two children from his first marriage. He is a supporter of St Kilda Football Club and the Port Melbourne Boroughs.

In 2008 Danby was appointed chair of the Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Migration[5] and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.[6]

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by
Clyde Holding		 Member for Melbourne Ports
1998–present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent

[edit] References

  1. ^ Electoral Law - Michael Danby
  2. ^ Careful, they might hear you, The Australian, June 10, 2006
  3. ^ Joyce a lone hand on Hicks plea letter, Sydney Morning Herald, February 2, 2007
  4. ^ Parliament House to host its first Jewish wedding
  5. ^ Joint Standing Committee on Migration - Members
  6. ^ Joint Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee - Membership

[edit] External links

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Current Members of the Australian House of Representatives from Victoria
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