John Eren
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John Hamdi Eren (born March 15, 1964) is an Australian politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Council since November 2002, representing Geelong Province.
Eren was born in Izmir, Turkey. He came to Australia in 1970 and studied at a high school in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. He has worked in a number of different fields, including on an assembly line in a car factory, as a security officer, small business owner and administrative assistant. In 1997, he took on a position as an electorate officer for then-federal shadow environment minister Kelvin Thomson, which he held until receiving Labor preselection for the seat of Geelong Province at the 2002 election.
Though it was widely thought that he would face a difficult contest against Liberal sitting member and shadow minister Ian Cover, Eren won comfortably, which reflected a landslide swing to Labor across the state. His first term in parliament has seen him as a relatively low-profile backbencher, serving on the Road Safety Committee. He will contest the Legislative Assembly electorate of Lara at the 2006 state election, when long-serving MP Peter Loney will retire. Loney stepped down when it became clear that Eren had more factional support and would win any preselection challenge.
Eren is the brother of former Labor MP Tayfun Eren.
