Gary Gray (Australian politician)
Encyclopedia
Gary Gray AO
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...

 (born 30 April 1958), Australian politician, is the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 representative for the Division of Brand
Division of Brand
The Division of Brand is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. The division was named after Sir David Brand, a former state premier, and is a safe Labor seat held by Gary Gray who first won the seat at the 2007 federal election...

 in Western Australia in the Australian House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

. Gray is currently the Special Minister of State and the Special Minister of State for the Public Service and Integrity.

Gary got his first job after high school in the local BHP steelworks. In 1981, he graduated from the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

, Canberra with a degree in economics.

Biography

He was born in Rotherham
Rotherham
Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...

, Yorkshire, England, and emigrated to Australia with his family in 1966, settling in state housing in Whyalla
Whyalla, South Australia
-Demographics:According to the 2006 Census the population of the Whyalla census area was 21,122 people, making it the second largest urban area in the state outside of Adelaide...

, South Australia. After finishing high school in 1976 at Whyalla High School
Whyalla High School
Whyalla High School was the first high school built in Whyalla. It was built by BHP in 1943, as a Technical school for BHP’s apprentices to be educated in. The school catered for year 8 to year 12. There were 113 students who were originally enrolled at the school...

, Gray worked at the local BHP
BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...

 steelworks, and then at the Savings Bank of South Australia
Savings Bank of South Australia
The Savings Bank of South Australia was founded in 1848, trading from a single room in Gawler Place, Adelaide. In 1984 it merged with the State Bank of South Australia, with the merged entity taking the latter name...

. He joined the Labor Party in 1974, and in May 1983, after graduating from the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

 with a degree in economics, he moved to Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

. From then until May 1985 he was the assistant to Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

 opposition leader
Leader of the Opposition (Northern Territory)
The Leader of the Opposition of the Northern Territory is an official role usually occupied by the leader of the second largest party in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly...

 Bob Collins. He became a national organiser in March 1986, in which capacity he worked on every state Labor campaign between 1986 and 1993 and initiated the National Marginal Seats Campaign. During this time he met and married his wife Deborah, the daughter of former Labor finance minister Peter Walsh.

On 30 April 1993, just after Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...

 won the 1993 election, he became National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party. Keating, in 2007, blamed Gray for the loss of the 1996 and 1998 elections, a view that was not shared by the leadership of the ALP at the time. He resigned after seven years on 10 November 1999, citing personal and family reasons, and moved to Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

, Western Australia. In April 2000, he quit working for the party hierarchy entirely, and took up a role with Wesfarmers
Wesfarmers
Wesfarmers Limited is one of Australia’s largest public companies and one of Australia's largest retailers. Its headquarters are in Perth, Western Australia....

 as the Executive Director of the Western Australian Institute of Medical Research. Within a year, he was engaged by Woodside Petroleum
Woodside Petroleum
Woodside Petroleum Limited is an Australian petroleum exploration and production company. It is a public company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and has its headquarters in Perth, Western Australia.-History:...

 as an adviser on their ultimately successful bid to repel the takeover of the company by the Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company is the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational oil company of Anglo Dutch origins, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 22,000 Shell employees are based in the U.S. The head office in the U.S. is in Houston, Texas...

,

Gary was then asked to join the company, becoming the Director of Corporate Affairs and a member of the company executive team. In this position Gary represented Woodside before governments on four continents as a negotiator, advocate and leader.

He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...

 in the Australia Day
Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...

 honours of 2003, for service to the Australian Labor Party and to politics through the introduction of modern campaign techniques, fundraising protocols for all political parties, affirmative action guidelines, and by strengthening the party's organisational and financial structure.

Gray left Woodside to contest the 2007 federal election for the seat of Brand
Division of Brand
The Division of Brand is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. The division was named after Sir David Brand, a former state premier, and is a safe Labor seat held by Gary Gray who first won the seat at the 2007 federal election...

 in Western Australia, replacing retiring MP Kim Beazley
Kim Beazley
In the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister....

. He won the seat on a 0.97% swing, and was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Infrastructure with Responsibility for Northern and Regional Australia in the First Rudd Ministry
First Rudd Ministry
The Rudd Ministry was the 65th Australian Commonwealth ministry. It was led by Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party.The Ministry was sworn in by the 24th Governor-General of Australia Major-General Michael Jeffery on 3 December 2007, following the 2007 election, and it ended on 24 June 2010...

.

At the 2010 Federal election he was re-elected as the Federal Member for Brand and later appointed Special Minister of State & Special Minister of State for the Public Service and Integrity in the Second Gillard Ministry
Second Gillard Ministry
The Second Gillard Ministry is the 67th Australian ministry. It is led by Julia Gillard of the Australian Labor Party. On 11 September 2010 she announced the makeup of her ministry, following the 2010 Federal election...

.

External links

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