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Michael David Danby (born 16 February 1955) is an Australian politician who was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1998 until 2019, representing the Division of Melbourne Ports, Victoria. Danby was briefly Parliamentary Secretary for the Arts, from March to September 2013.
From 1979 to 1983 Danby was manager of Halmaag Art Galleries in Malvern. He was Assistant Private Secretary to Barry Cohen, a minister in the Bob Hawke government 1983–84, and Editor of the Australia-Israel Review (published by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council) from 1986 to 1993. In 1985 he was senior vice-president of the International Youth Conference in Kingston, Jamaica. He was a ministerial adviser to Alan Griffiths, the Industry Minister in the Paul Keating government, 1993–94. He was an industrial officer with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association 1994–96.
In 2008 and 2009 the Migration Committee completed three major reports. These reports made numerous recommendations in relation to Australia's immigration detention system, several of which of were adopted by the Australian Government, including the recommendation that 'detention debt' should be abolished. Danby gained some media attention in late 2009 following his criticism of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's use of the term 'illegal immigrants' rather than 'asylum seekers'. Regarding use of the term 'illegal immigrants' he stated "I don't find these sort of populist expressions helpful in this debate." Labor MP criticises Rudd on asylum seekers, ABC news, 20 October 2009
In July 2009 in his role as Chair of the Parliamentary Group for Tibet, Danby led the first-ever delegation of Australian MPs and Senators to Dharamshala, India, the base of the Central Tibetan Administration. The group met with Dalai Lama, and other senior lamas, as well as numerous government Ministers. Danby also gave a speech at the celebrations for the Dalai Lama's 74th birthday entitled 'Let freedom reign in Tibet'. The Chinese Government reacted angrily to the delegation's visit, saying the visit constituted interference in China's internal affairs.
From July 2011 to March 2013 Danby was Chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, a role which saw him represent the Prime Minister at the inauguration of the new nation of South Sudan in 2011.
In 2005 Danby was critical of a book by a Sydney Jewish atheist journalist, Antony Loewenstein, about the Australian Jewish community and its attitudes to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In a letter to the Australian Jewish News, Danby called on the book's publisher, Melbourne University Press, to "drop this whole disgusting project." He also called on the Jewish community to boycott the book. "I urge the Australian Jewish community, and particularly the Australian Jewish News, to treat it with dignified silence," he said.
Danby helped organise the visit of the Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer, to Australia for the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2009. The visit drew condemnation from the Chinese Government, but Danby criticised the Chinese Government for describing Kadeer as a terrorist, and argued that she was "a paradigm of non-violence".
In September and October 2010 Danby wrote a number of articles critical of Australian National University academic Hugh White's Quarterly Essay entitled "Power Shift: Australia's Future between Washington and Beijing'". In an article published in The Wall Street Journal Asia, Danby was highly critical of White's contention that Australia should support US military evacuation of the South China Sea, and other possible zones of conflict with China. In another article in The Australian (co-authored with foreign affairs experts Carl Ungerer and Peter Khalil), Danby warned against a 'Munich Moment' which would result if Australia followed White's advice and decided that the price of China's growing power was to cease "lecturing China about dissidents, Tibet or religious freedom". White responded to these articles in both The Australian and the Australian Financial Review. However it seems Danby had the last word in the debate, publishing another article in the Australian Financial Review, which attacked White's thesis as advocating "unprincipled appeasement". Danby also accused White of holding 'cold-blooded, Henry Kissinger views', 'treating China and the United States as if they were no more than a pair of traditional great-power rivals competing for territory or markets, like the Habsburg and '.Australian Financial Review 30 September 2010 p67 In a parliamentary speech in October 2010 Danby pointed to calls for reform from within the highest echelons of the Chinese Communist Party as reason not to follow White's approach. Parliamentary debates parlinfo.aph.gov.au 19 October 2010
During his time in Parliament, Danby was a member of the World Movement for Democracy's Steering Committee.
In the 2016 federal election campaign, Danby criticised Greens candidate Steph Hodgins-May for pulling out of a local debate after discovering it was co-hosted by Zionism Victoria; Hodgins-May was critical of the organisation's political views, specifically its dismissive attitude of the United Nations, her former employer. In response Danby called her an "obnoxious bigot" and called on Greens leader Richard Di Natale to sack her. The debate ultimately went ahead between Danby and Liberal candidate Owen Guest, with Hodgins-May represented by an empty chair.
During the campaign Danby was discovered distributing which preferenced the Greens below the Liberals, in contravention of official Labor Party cards, which preferenced the Liberals below the Greens. The Greens unequivocally preferenced Labor.
Danby previously drew criticism in the 2013 federal election for distributing how-to-vote cards which placed the Australian Sex Party last when distributed to Jewish Orthodox voters, in contravention of official Labor Party cards which placed Family First last.
Labor leader Bill Shorten was reported to be "deeply unimpressed" by Danby's actions, and former Labor New South Wales Premier and foreign minister Bob Carr called the ad "wild, nasty and tinged by mania." The incident further stoked a push by factions within the Labor Party to pressure Danby into retirement ahead of the next election, with sources saying Danby was "too divisive to resist the Liberals and the Greens."
| + ! !Electorate !Primary vote !Change in primary vote from previous election !2 party preferred !Opponent 2PP !Name of Liberal opponent | ||||||
| 1990 | Goldstein | 29.8% | -10.2% | 44.0% | 56.0% | David Kemp |
| 1998 | Melbourne Ports | 44.10% | -2.47% | 55.83% | 44.17% | Fiona Snedden |
| 2001 | Melbourne Ports | 39.36% | -4.74% | 55.69% | 44.31% | Andrew McLorinan |
| 2004 | Melbourne Ports | 39.25% | -0.11% | 53.74% | 46.36% | David Southwick |
| 2007 | Melbourne Ports | 42.47% | +3.22% | 57.15% | 42.85% | Adam Held |
| 2010 | Melbourne Ports | 38.19% | -4.28% | 57.56% | 42.44% | Kevin Ekendahl |
| 2013 | Melbourne Ports | 31.67% | -6.52% | 53.56% | 46.44% | Kevin Ekendahl |
| 2016 | Melbourne Ports | 27.00% | -4.67% | 51.38% | 48.62% | Owen Guest |
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