Jenny Macklin

 ( 1953 Births ) 

From 1976 to 1978, Macklin worked as a researcher at the Australian National University (ANU) under accounting and finance professor Russell Matthews. She then joined the Parliamentary Library as an economics specialist within the Legislative Research Service. She was a member of a Canberra discussion group, the Red Fems, which presented a paper to the Women and Labour Conference in 1980. Her work on energy pricing in the aluminium industry came to the attention of Victorian Labor MP Brian Howe, and in 1981 he recruited her to join the Labor Resource Centre in Melbourne as a research coordinator. From 1985 to 1988, Macklin served as an adviser to David White, the state health minister.

In 1990, Macklin's mentor Brian Howe was appointed Minister for Health in the Hawke government. She was subsequently appointed as the director of the government's National Health Strategy (NHS) initiative, tasked with reviewing Australia's existing health system. She delivered a series of background papers and issues papers, one of which proposed the abolition of private health insurance. The NHS body was disbanded in 1993 following a one-year extension of its initial two-year term. Macklin then served as director of the Australian Urban and Regional Development Review from 1993 to 1995.

After the ALP's defeat at the 2001 election, Macklin was elected unopposed as deputy leader to Simon Crean. She was the first woman to hold a leadership position in either Australian major party. She took on the position of Shadow Minister for Education. Macklin remained Deputy Leader after Crean's replacement as leader by Mark Latham in December 2003, and also under Kim Beazley following Latham's resignation in January 2005. Macklin became the first person to be deputy to three leaders of the ALP since Frank Forde.

On 1 December 2006, Macklin's position as deputy leader of the ALP came under threat after Kim Beazley called for a spill of all the leadership positions, in a bid to end growing speculation over the issue. Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Kevin Rudd, and Shadow Minister for Health, Julia Gillard, announced their intentions to run against Beazley and Macklin as a team for the positions of leader and deputy leader respectively of the party. On the day of the ballot, Macklin effectively stepped down from the position, choosing not to contest the deputy leadership after Kevin Rudd was elected as the new party leader. Macklin was once again elected to the Shadow frontbench, and was appointed Shadow Minister for Families and Community Services and Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation. She maintained these portfolios in government after Labor's victory in the 2007 election.

In 2011, Macklin was given the additional responsibility of Minister for Disability Reform, overseeing the design and implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Macklin was also a member of the Government's Expenditure Review Committee and Chair of the Government's Social Policy Committee.

She has said that one of her most important achievements was to take the politics out of Indigenous affairs and destroy the toxic division between "symbols" and "practical" change. On 23 November 2011, the Stronger Futures Policy legislation was introduced by Macklin to address key issues such as unemployment, school attendance, alcohol abuse, child protection, safety, housing and land reforms in the Northern Territory.

The rollout of the NDIS commenced in 2013 at four launch sites around Australia, with full rollout to be completed in 2019. Macklin was instrumental in the success of negotiations with states and territories, which resulted in a nationwide agreement on the NDIS. When fully completed in 2019 the NDIS is expected to cover around 460,000 Australians with disability.

An independent review of the scheme in 2014 found that more than 75 per cent of parents accessing paid parental leave were on incomes of less than $70,000 a year. In the 2015 Budget the Abbott government announced a measure to end so called "double dipping" of paid parental leave by restricting 80,000 new parents from accessing both employer and government paid parental leave schemes. The use of the term provoked widespread condemnation from women's groups and some employers. Macklin led Labor's opposition to the Liberal government's cuts to paid parental leave, which have failed to pass the Parliament.