Michael Lee (Australian politician)

Michael John Lee (born 24 March 1957) is an Australian Labor Party member of the City of Sydney Council.

Lee was born in Sydney and grew up in the beach side suburb of Cronulla and attended the local De la Salle College. His immediate classmates included Steve Hutchins, now an Australian Senator, and John Della Bosca, now the NSW Minister for Industrial Relations.^{[citation needed]}

After graduating in electrical engineering from the University of New South Wales, Lee was employed as an engineer at the Munmorah Power Station on the Central Coast of New South Wales. He was subsequently elected as an Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Dobell, in 1984, serving until his defeat at the 2001 election.^[1]

In March 1993, Lee was appointed Minister for Tourism and Minister for Resources in the second Keating Ministry. In December 1993, he he swapped positions with David Beddall and became Minister for Communications in December 1993. In January 1994 he gained responsibility for the arts. He lost his ministerial responsibility with the defeat of the Keating government at the 1996 election. He was Shadow Minister for Health from 1996 to 1998 and shadow Minister for Education from 1998 to 2001.^[1] Following his defeat in the 2001 election, he ran as the Labor candidate for Lord Mayor of Sydney in 2004, and was defeated by Clover Moore, but was elected to the Council.

[edit] References

Political offices
Preceded by Alan Griffiths	Minister for Tourism 1993 – 1996	Succeeded by Andrew Thomson
Preceded by Alan Griffiths	Minister for Resources 1993	Succeeded by David Beddall
Preceded by David Beddall	Minister for Communications (and the Arts) 1993 – 1996	Succeeded by Richard Alston
Parliament of Australia
New division	Member for Dobell 1984 – 2001	Succeeded by Ken Ticehurst