news Former Home Affairs and Justice Minister Jason Clare, a politician with no previous known history in the Communications portfolio, has been appointed Shadow Communications Minister, with experienced former telco lawyer Michelle Rowland to assist him in opposing sitting Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Clare, 41 years of age, is the Member for the safe Labor seat of Blaxland. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2007, and has since held a raft of Ministerial appointments in the Rudd and Gillard Labor administrations, including roles as the Parliamentary Secretary for Employment, as the Minister for Defence Material, and as the Minister for Home Affairs and Justice, roles which saw Clare thrust to the forefront of the national debate on immigration over the years from December 2011 through to August 2013.
The politician has also served on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Training, as well as the Committee on Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. In addition, Clare served on the Joint Statutory Committee for the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.
Before entering parliament, Clare achieved degrees in law and the arts, as well as acting as a police adviser to the NSW Minister for Police, as well as holding a role as a senior policy adviser to NSW Premier Bob Carr. Before 2007, Clare was a manager of corporate relations at Transurban.
The news will come as an unexpected surprise to Australia’s telecommunications industry, which had expected qualified and experienced candidates such as MP Ed Husic or Senator Kate Lundy to be appointed to the role, both of whom have consistently demonstrated a strong interest in the portfolio over the past decade and more, as well as having recently held junior roles in it under Kevin Rudd’s short-lived pre-election administration.
In contrast, Clare is not known to have commented publicly on issues in the telecommunications portfolio since his ascension to parliament.
In recent days, rumours flying around the telecommunications industry had named second-term MP and former corporate lawyer Michelle Rowland as having picked up the role of Shadow Communications Minister in Bill Shorten’s new Labor Shadow Cabinet. Instead, Rowland was today appointed as Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications and will aid Clare in the role.
Before entering Parliament, Rowland was a senior lawyer with Gilbert + Tobin, a law firm known for its speciality in intellectual property and technology law in Australia. The MP has acknowledged she advised telcos on issues associated with the National Broadband Network.
In Parliament, Rowland has been a constant and passionate advocate for Labor’s NBN project, debating then-Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull on the issue from the backbench regularly and sitting on the Parliamentary Committee examining the National Broadband Network.
Rowland’s other experience, however, is not as relevant to the portfolio. The politician was a director of the Western Sydney Area Health Service from 2000 to 2004 and is a former local Councillor and Deputy Mayor of Blacktown. The MP, who is 42 years of age, was born in Blacktown and raised in Seven Hills. Rowland was educated at the Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta, as well as at the University of Sydney.
In other appointments relevant to the technology industry, former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has retained the portfolio in opposition, while Kim Carr will retain responsibility for innovation and industry. Gary Gray will be the Shadow Special Minister of State. Former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has been appointed Shadow Minister of Defence.
Opinion/analysis to follow.
Image credit: Australian Customs and Border Protection Service
Not surprised Conroy got bumped up but it is a shame Lundy missed out but just goes to show who still wields significant power in the Labor circus(caucus).
+1. Such a waste of talent to not have Lundy take communications. Lundy + Husic would make a great team.
One minute silence for the ‘Brotherhood of the Red Undies’…
Pretty sure all the laws that allowed that are all still in effect, so the torch has been passed to the current minister unless they are repealed/wound back.
Earl of Wentworth, Knight of the Order of the Red Undies!!
(Heck, if the UK can have an order for a garter, we can have one for undies!)
Edit: The edit button finally showed up for me!! Cheers Renai
To be honest I think Clare and Rowland will also make a great team.
Its over for Turnbull then ?
+1 Renai; needs a fresh perspective and a decent team to hold Turnbull to account.
Husic is good, but he’s struggled to rate a mention with respect to opposition comment. Turnbull has had a few flubs that have gone wanting for a response.
We need good opposition, to make a good government. And that’s more than just saying “no”.
We need good opposition, to make a good government. And that’s more than just saying “no”.
Yep. A good opposition can still introduce laws (members bills etc), and they should always be looking at ways to make sure the laws that do get passed, are better for their input and support. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of the “Noalition” politics.
To be honest I think Clare and Rowland will also make a great team.
I’m inclined to agree after what I’ve been reading about Rowland, though I hope Jason lifts his game a bit from when he was Minister for Home Affairs. He seemed a bit lack lustre and kind of….I dunno, “smarmy”. They both get points from me for not being union starters, though I’d have preferred Ed and Michelle (or maybe even Michelle and Ed!).
So with at least three eminently qualified choices (Husic, Lundy and Rowland) we get this grandstanding pretty boy with a dime a dozen Arts & Law degrees (I should know, I got them too), and absolutely nada comms experience… at a time of massive importance given the coalitions monkey boy antics re the nbn and expected cowering subservience to the yankee surveillance and copywrite carpetbaggers. Shaping up as a confirmation of my desertion from the Labor Party as a permanent one now… idiots…
Actually, what’s needed is someone who can rip apart the rhetoric, not a comms braniac.
If they can arm that person with a reasonably savvy sidekick, then jolly good. labor needs some fresh blood up front because the old blood is pretty rank, frankly.
Turnbull has been skating on a whim and a prayer for months; a team that can pull apart the apathetic policies and, effectively, keep Turnbull honest – is far more useful than a smart comms person, alone.
Skating on a whim and prayer for months eh?, as distinct from the Labor NBN skating on a whim and prayer for 3 years and finally ending up skating off the rink, I think MT so far is well ahead on that one.
:)
On a more serious note I hope this new Labor team puts in a much better effort than the failed pre election campaign about the the ‘obsolete copper’ and the conjecture cost of FoD using a UK pound to $A conversion rate and trying to scare the punters and actually attempt to sell the benefits as they see it of FTTP to the nation.
But I bet they don’t.
On a more serious note I hope this new Labor team puts in a much better effort than the failed pre election campaign about the the ‘obsolete copper’ and the conjecture cost of FoD using a UK pound to $A conversion rate and trying to scare the punters and actually attempt to sell the benefits as they see it of FTTP to the nation..
At the end of the day, the issue isn’t that the copper is “obsolete”, it’s that Telstra saved money by using inferior gauge copper in metro areas where they only “had” to provide voice coms thanks to the USO.
The “$5,000 FoD” thing was always a furphy, BT doesn’t cap it at “500m”, they’ll run it to 15Km if you can afford it (26,250 pounds going off their Band G pricing). Malcolm might cap it at 500m, but he hasn’t said that anywhere that I’ve seen.
Indeed tinman…
The party faithful who opposed the real NBN because, well they had to… keep telling us NBN was bad, because, err, umm, they missed estimations. Yes the very same estimations they had initially claimed were not to even be considered anyway, when the Corp Plan was first released, because they were nothing but estimations (well der) and they have nothing else to bag the real NBN about which isn’t purely politically motivated…
Yet along with many other obvious detrimental issues in relation to FttN, they welcome the use of dilapidated and obsolete copper which belongs to a private company and readily accept Aussie must pay $5K if they want FttP…
Subservience vs commonsense and subservience wins hands down… unbelievable.
If they can arm that person with a reasonably savvy sidekick, then jolly good. labor needs some fresh blood up front because the old blood is pretty rank, frankly.
They need less “union warriors” and more merit based talent, regardless of where they come from (but that’s just IMHO).
He did well pushing for the R18+ classification, so that was a good start.
Imagine if Labor wins the next election…. Conroy becomes Defence Minister…. O.O
God. Save. Us. All. (incl. FTTH zealots)
We’ve already had worse than that happen to us: Abbott became our Prime Minister.
I see where you’re coming from! You must have jumped from Howard to Abbott and wiped the KRudd/Dillard nightmare from your memory! Well done sir!
Don’t mind Clare, he seems a decent bloke. Rowland has experience in the area but again, another lawyer in the so called “worker’s party” of the ALP! Hope she can drag herself away from Fairfax Media interviews next time her kid gets sick! though!
“I see where you’re coming from!”
You obviously don’t. But then that’s hardly surprising given your comments in the rest of your post.
Sorry snookums!
Another smart Alec, patronising, Coalition can’t do no wrong and Labor is useless, but nevertheless polite contributor.
And where did I say that? Patronising?……ah pot, kettle, black!
Both parties have made plenty of mistakes!
Maybe if you posted more about the non-Labor ones, people wouldn’t think your so “one eyed” about it? Better yet, instead of posting about who did what wrong, maybe focus on the facts and post ideas/things to help bring a better outcome? Just a thought…
At the end of the day, a decent National Broadband Network isn’t about Liberal or Labor, it’s about Australia and it’s future in the world.
The Libs weren’t in power the NBN started? How can I criticise them over what has, even to an “apparent leftie” as yourself, the complete stuff-up the NBN has been?
Howard made the biggest mistake in our history by allowing the duoply of Coles and Woolies to now dictate how just about all retail purchasing is done! I work in the agriculture industry and I have to compete with Coles(Landmark)! Now they want to get into banking! Plus the petrol, car insurance………………Geez nearly everyone will be working for either company soon! :( (Yes, yes I exaggerate a tad!)
Keating a distant second for selling the Commonwealth Bank!
How’s that for some balance?
Calling people lefties shows were you are coming from. Just as calling Rudd/Gillard a disaster or the NBN a complete stuff up. Tony would be proud of you. It shows you have listened to his “messages”. Why don’t you tell us about the Budget crisis while you’re at it?
The Libs were in power for the first go at it, did you criticise them then when it failed? Did you complain about how JH ignored his own expert panels advice (in 2001) to build an NBN? I know I did.
I don’t really care who builds it, just as long as it gets built, like it or not, an interconnected high speed (and I mean that in a literal >1gbps way, not a “marketing ultra high speed 25Mbps” way) network is where the worlds heading, if we want to compete globally, we should get in ahead, not constantly be playing catch-up (or falling behind).
And a lot of people, and a lot of other companies, helped Coles and Woolies to get in the position they are in. I’m not sure you can blame just them. And while the banking industry is heavily regulated, I’m not sure applying the same legal structure on supermarkets would be a good thing in the long run. I’d rather see government apply laws that make it easier for the smaller companies to be more competitive. Something like a ban on exclusive supplies/suppliers, things along those lines.
@tinman_au
‘At the end of the day, a decent National Broadband Network isn’t about Liberal or Labor, it’s about Australia and it’s future in the world.’
At the end of the day it is all about if it is Labor or Liberal, the Government of the day implements their version of health ,deference spending, carbon policy etc.
The NBN is not anything different, it is a political policy.
This is what happens when you can’t envisage the world in any other way that politically.
The NBN is a network, not a political concept. The fact that it has been politicised doesn’t detract from what it is.
At the end of the day it is all about if it is Labor or Liberal, the Government of the day implements their version of health ,deference spending, carbon policy etc.
Actually, it’s more like other infrastructure like sewage, water and power.
The NBN is not anything different, it is a political policy./
As I read that, if the Liberals had have come up with the FTTP plan, you would have supported that instead? Did you support Labors original FTTN plan?
Albenese has Infrastructure, so he will still have influence.
This is Labor party saying to Turnbull you have carte blanche on NBN
Well he does anyway, he is the voted in Comms Minister with a Coalition policy that was also voted in.
In a democracy, no minister has carte blanche, this is why we have an opposition. If you are talking dictatorship, then you have a point.
Conroy thought he did! He was wrong!
So your disagreeing with Fibroid then Ken, and agreeing with Robert?
Ah of course, you can’t be critical of one thing without adhering to an ENTIRE ideology associated with criticism of that one thing…
/eyeroll
It has obviously never occurred to you that a thinking centrist can have opinions that do not neatly fall in to the lines you arbitrarily scrawl across Australia.
Of course its occured to him, but nobody commenting on this site is centrist in the slightest. Every single one of us has a bias one way or the other on every issue. NBN is either the grand future proofed FttH, or the short term cost saving FttN.
Take your pick, and on that specific issue, you’re leftist or rightist – one option spends money, one saves it. The irony (to me at least) is that with both plans the cost burden on Government is near enough to identical that the difference is inconsequential.
The more expensive option still costs the Government the same as the cheaper cost saving option. $900m difference is a drop in the ocean for a project of this magnitude, whichever technology you end up getting.
I think you’re confused about what being a centrist entails. You can have varying views which are not leftist or rightist, but just your views. The fact that they coincide with those of the left or right is just accidental.
As for preferring FTTP to FTTN, it is not necessarily a case of bias towards one or the other. It is more because one makes more sense economically in the long term. Furthermore, there are still many unanswered questions about the final make up of the Coalition NBN and rather than speculate about what is likely to happen, I would rather wait and see what MT can come up with to address them. Until them, I reserve my judgment.
Ah of course, you can’t be critical of one thing without adhering to an ENTIRE ideology associated with criticism of that one thing…
What “ENTIRE ideology” are you talking about? He was referring to the power of the Coms minister (as was I).
http://www.afr.com/p/business/companies/nbn_co_calls_in_telstra_milne_58l7GkqVsfKE0I36SBYjaL
Since the reply button is not there I’ll reply here to Observer:
Again, pot, kettle, black! You showed your bias in your reply to haha yeah! Also, the ALP received its lowest primary vote since the first election they contested, it wasn’t just me who deemed them to be a failure!
The budget! 90 bill in the bank to -300+ six years later! If anyone thinks Rudd got us through the GFC better then Howard/Costello would have, they’re dilusional!
For someone who calls himself/herself Observer, you ain’t really!!
Have you seen what Hockey is doing? Increasing our debt ceiling to $370B, possibly more. What are they doing to fix the “budget emergency”? Well nothing actually, because the economy was in great shape.
Can you point to the sweeping changes they have made to save us from the Labor spending spree? Is it spending more on roads that had failed Infrastructure Australia’s CBA? That was a nice vote buyer.
90 to -300, and it will go further under the Coalition too. They’ve already sold nearly everything the government owned. So pretty hard to repeat the Howard years of “plenty”. They are giving it a go however, packaging up HEX debts as financial products. Oh well, it’s only education.
What bias? Unlike you I don’t see the world in Black/White or better still Right/Left. In fact, I have little time for politicians, having had dealing with members of most parties and independents.
To suggest that Gillard/Rudd were a failure, using the Coalition’s arguments to prove your case and then suggesting that Howard/Costello would done a better job (or words to that effect, is straight out of the “Labor abysmal, Coalition the saviour hand book”,
The way I look at it is that Labour did some good things and some shit things. Likewise the Coalition, under Howard, did some good things but also some shit things. The difference is simply that the MSM, who is naturally part of big business, put more emphasis on Labor’s shortcomings than it did on the Coalition.
Noteworthy that you think that someone who disagrees with you must be delusional. The fact is we will never know, given that Howard/Costello were never faced with such a situation. What is delusional is the fact that you think you know better.
MSM…..as the ABC & SBS are the media wings for the ALP! Oh but that’s just a conspiricy theory….Mark Scott former Lib and all that!
GFC…..Costello vs Swann……you’re joking right?
No, you’re not a Labor ideolog at all Observer, no not at all! ;)
“No, you’re not a Labor ideolog at all Observer, no not at all! ;)”
In your world, I have no doubt, I am.
Once again, incapable of looking at the world outside of a Labor/Coalition or Left and Right dichotomy.
As for ABC and SBS, because they sometimes dare being critical of your beloved Coalition, they must be left wing.
“GFC…..Costello vs Swann……you’re joking right?”
How am I joking suggesting that we will never know, since Costello was never confronted with the situation?
The budget! 90 bill in the bank to -300+ six years later! If anyone thinks Rudd got us through the GFC better then Howard/Costello would have, they’re dilusional!
So what do you think of Joe’s plan to raise Australia’s debt ceiling to $400b? I guess he has some spending to do like JH did ( http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/hey-big-spender-howard-the-king-of-the-loose-purse-strings-20130110-2cj32.html ).
Pot, kettle, black once again!
Is this truly the best you can come with?
You do the answering youself! You accuse me but are doing the same from your point of view. Simplez!
I’ve actually not said a thing about Abbott’s policies so here goes……….
The new federal government has to cut the fat out of everything, just like the Newman gov has in Qld to get things going again! There’s way too much “assistance” given out freely and it needs to end! Hope Abbott has the b#lls to do it!
Judge them in 3 years and give ’em the boot if they’ve been a failure!
“I’ve actually not said a thing about Abbott’s policies so here goes……….”
That’s true but you have said plenty about other things.
” to get things going again!”
Why? Had they actually stopped?
It a bit like” now Australia is opened for business”. I don’t think that it ever closed?
“There’s way too much “assistance” given out freely and it needs to end!”
Was sort of assistance do you have in mind ?
Has Campbell got things going in QLD?
Judge them in 3 years and give ‘em the boot if they’ve been a failure!
Now there’s something we can all agree on (for either party) :o)
Hi there I have been working on the NBN around Brisbane and nears Bribie island ,until Turnbull got in then it all stopped .There Is no work at the Sunshine Coast and the little bit that had started he killed .There are contractors in Brisbane that had to put off most of there staff ,great Christmas present ,and the NBN has come to a stand still, any one can see that Telstra has done a deal with Turnbull to go FTTN thus leaving the old copper network in the ground and also,this means Telstra will be able leave all the asphestos in the ground for some one to fix in later years ,
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