Gabrielle Harrison

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Gabrielle Mary Harrison (born 1964-03-25) is an Australian politician. She served as Member for Parramatta from 1994 until 2003, succeeding her first husband, Andrew Ziolkowski, who died in office. Harrison's brother, Steve Harrison, was a union heavyweight and joint secretary of the Australian Workers Union.

Harrison studied law at Macquarie University, in Sydney. At university she became heavily involved in student politics, and was chairman of the university Students' Union. It was at university that she met her future husband Ziolkowski, who was on the Students' Council and editor of the university newspaper, Arena. She joined the Australian Labor Party in 1984, and was active in Young Labor. After university, she became secretary of the Parramatta branch of the ALP. She married Ziolkowski on 1985-11-30.

When her husband died in 1994, Harrison came to be seen as the obvious choice to follow him as Member for Parramatta. She was criticised by her opponent, Liberal nominee Wendy Young, for running for office instead of staying at home and looking after her son Tristan, then 7. Harrison won the by-election by a large margin, earning a swing of a further nine percent towards her party.

After her election was re-confirmed by voters at the 1995 general election, the sports-mad Harrison was appointed Minister for Sport and Recreation. However, soon after the 1999 election, she lost her portfolio in a Cabinet reshuffle. Before being dumped from the frontbench, Harrison claimed that she was the "victim of factional manœuvrings"[1]. However, the Sunday Telegraph reported that she had fallen out of favour with Premier Bob Carr, and that "party sources" had said it was her reluctance to ask questions in Parliament and perform other public duties that led her to get the axe. Harrison was, however, very popular in the sporting community, and her sacking prompted many protests.

Around the same time, Harrison (along with NSW Speaker John Murray) was sued before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission for AU$800 000 by former staffer Anne Stonham, who claimed that her contract was "unfair" and she had been overworked. The court subsequently found in favour of Harrison. Another staffer, John Cairn, accused Harrison of keeping photographs of her enemies in a locket around her neck.

In 2002 Harrison, who had been described as "the hero of the Labor Party"[2] after winning her former husband's seat in 1994, announced that she intended to quit politics when her seat came up for re-election in 2003. She resigned on 2002-12-20, and Labor fielded Tanya Gadiel in the 2003 elections.

Harrison, now free of politics, lives with her new husband Ron Bonham, her son Tristan, and Bonham's daughter. In late 2002, she told the Sunday Telegraph, "There will be a time when people will no longer know my name except for the kids at my son's tuckshop. I look forward to that day."[3]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ↑  "Sassy Labor star is now the invisible MP", Sunday Telegraph (see references)
  2. ↑  "NSW - Former minister Harrison to quit politics", Australian Associated Press (see references)
  3. ↑  "MP seeks job in school tuckshop", Sunday Telegraph

[edit] References

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