Santo Santoro

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Santo Santoro (born 27 April 1956), Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate from October 2002 to March 2007, representing the state of Queensland.

Born in Sicily, Italy in 1956, Santoro emigrated to Australia with his family at the age of 5.[1] Santoro was educated at Marist College Rosalie in Brisbane before attending the University of Queensland where he was awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Economics with honours.

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[edit] Queensland state politics

Santoro was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as Member for Merthyr in Brisbane from 13 May 1989 until 19 September 1992. He was then elected as State Member for Clayfield from 19 September 1992 until he was defeated on 17 February 2001 by Liddy Clark. From 26 February 1996 to 26 June 1998, he was the State Minister for Training and Industrial Relations.

He was also the deputy leader of the State Liberal Party from 1992 to 1995.

[edit] Australian Senate

On 29 October 2002, Santoro was selected by the Queensland Parliament to replace Senator Hon Dr John Herron who had resigned from the Senate to become Australia's Ambassador to Ireland.[2]

As a Senator, Santoro was a strident critic of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, using parliamentary privilege in 2003 to accuse the national broadcaster of "sloppy and shoddy" journalism, and disloyalty to Australian soldiers serving in Iraq, after an internal memo to ABC news staff instructed them to refrain from referring to soldiers as "our troops".[3]

Santoro was sworn in as Federal Minister for Ageing in John Howard's government on 27 January 2006.

[edit] Share trading scandal and resignation

March 2007 saw a tumultuous two weeks in Parliament, with both sides of the House accusing the other of unethical behaviour. Ten days after Human Services Minister Ian Campbell had resigned after admitting to meeting Brian Burke, Senator Santoro disclosed that he had technically breached the government's ministerial code of conduct [4] by holding shares in CBio, a biotechnology company related to his portfolio. Santoro claimed he had received the shares in January 2006, had failed to declare or divest them when he became Minister for Ageing, until he sold them them in January 2007 after realising three months earlier that there might be a conflict of interest. Initially Prime Minister John Howard and other government ministers defended the breach on the grounds that it was inadvertent.[5]

However, further controversy arose over the fate of the profits derived from the sale of the shares in question – Santoro claimed he had donated the proceeds of the sale to a "charity", the Family Council of Queensland, which was revealed not to be a registered charity, but a pro-family lobby group which had been responsible for giving Senator Santoro the shares in the first place.[6]

It was subsequently found during an audit of his finances that Santoro had failed to declare 72 other share trades, and he resigned from the ministry on March 16, 2007[7], to be replaced by Christopher Pyne. The failures to declare his share trading were in breach of Australian Senate's requirement that Senators' interests be registered, viz: "Any alteration to a senator’s registrable interests, or those of the senator’s spouse or partner, or dependent children, must be notified to the registrar within 35 days of the change occurring."[8]

On March 20, Santoro announced he would resign from the Senate, and federal politics altogether, saying "I've advised the prime minister tonight, and I wish to advise the Senate, that I will shortly resign from this august institution."[9] He was replaced by Sue Boyce, according to changes made by the 1977 Australian referendum to section 15 of the Constitution [10], in the same way that he was appointed to the Senate in the first place.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Profile: Santo Santoro, Ministry of Health. Retrieved 20 March 2007.
  2. ^ Biography: SANTORO, the Hon. Santo, Parliament of Australia.
  3. ^ Annabel Crabb: ABC accused of disloyalty to troops, The Age, 14 August 2003.
  4. ^ Prime Minister John Howard's Ministerial Code Of Conduct
  5. ^ Peta Donald: Santoro urged to quit over undeclared shares, The World Today (ABC Local Radio), 13 March 2007.
  6. ^ Kathryn Roberts: Senator Santoro's 'charity' not a charity, PM (ABC Local Radio), 13 March 2007.
  7. ^ Phillip Coorey: Santoro resigns from ministry, The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 March 2007.
  8. ^ Parliament of Australia: Senate: Registration of Senators' Interests
  9. ^ Santoro quits federal politics, The Age, 20 March 2007.
  10. ^ Parliament of Australia: Senate: Constitution - Chapter 1 part II

[edit] External links

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by
Julie Bishop		 Minister for Ageing
2006 – 2007		 Succeeded by
Christopher Pyne