Carmel Tebbutt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carmel Mary Tebbutt (born 22 January 1964), Australian politician, is the New South Wales Minister for Education and Training.

[edit] Background

Tebbutt is one of seven children. She was born and raised in the country town of Forbes. Her family then moved to Sydney where she attended Catholic high schools. She went on to earn an Economics degree from Sydney University, graduating in 1986. She joined the Australian Labor Party in 1985, and is a member of its left-wing faction.

Tebbutt is married to federal shadow Minister for the Environment Anthony Albanese. Interestingly, her state seat of Marrickville is contained almost entirely within her husband's federal seat of Grayndler, leading the Greens to dub them as the 'King and Queen of Marrickville'. She and her husband have one young son named Nathan.

[edit] Parliamentary career

Tebbutt was elected to a seat on Marrickville Council in 1993 before becoming Deputy Mayor in 1995. She was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council filling a vacancy following the retirement of Ann Symonds in 1998.

After the Carr government was re-elected in 1999, she served as Minister for Juvenile Justice. After Labor's second landslide re-election in 2003, Tebbutt was promoted, given responsibility for the Ministries of Ageing, Disability Services, Youth, and Community Affairs. In a cabinet reshuffle in early 2005, she was promoted to her current position, becoming Minister for Education and Training.

Following Premier Bob Carr's unexpected resignation 27 July 2005, and the resultant resignations of Deputy Premier Andrew Refshauge and Senior Minister Craig Knowles, the 'Triple-M' by-elections for the seats of Maroubra, Marrickville, and Macquarie Fields were held on 17 September 2005. The new incoming Premier, Morris Iemma, was said to have favoured her for the position of Deputy Premier because having a female in the role would have looked favourably with the electorate, however ultimately the position of the Deputy Premier is chosen by the Left Faction.

Tebbutt resigned from the Legislative Council on 26 August to seek election for the seat of Marrickville. Hence for the three week period from 26 August to 17 September 2005, Tebbutt was in the unusual, though not unprecedented position of being a Minister of the State, without being a Member of Parliament.

Tebbutt successfully defended the seat of Marrickville for the Labor Party in her by-election, increasing the primary vote for the ALP, though suffering a 5.6% two-candidate preferred swing against her.

On the 27 November 2006, Tebbutt's embarrassing blunder of giving the wrong answer when asked why Australia Day is celebrated. When asked by announcer Anthony Clark about the meaning of Australia Day on Sydney radio station Nova 96.9, Ms Tebbutt replied "We celebrate Australia Day because that's the day that we became a nation and the states joined together". When Clark picked up on the blunder, she made this correction. "Sorry, you've got me too early in the morning. Well, Australia Day of course is Europeans arrival in Australia."