Jodeen Terese Carney (born 9 December 1965) is an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n politician. She has been a
Country Liberal PartyThe Northern Territory Country Liberal Party is a Northern Territory political party affiliated with both the Liberal and National parties. It is a member of the Coalition....
member of the
Northern Territory Legislative AssemblyThe Northern Territory Legislative Assembly is the unicameral parliament of the Northern Territory in Australia. It sits in Parliament House, located on State Square, close to the centre of the city of Darwin.-History:...
since September 2001, representing the Alice Springs-based electorate of
AraluenAraluen is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1983, replacing the electorate of Alice Springs, which had been abolished as part of the enlargement of the Assembly...
. She is the Shadow Attorney-General, and Shadow Minister for Justice, Health, Family and Community Services, Business and Industry, Women's Policy, Territory Development, the AustralAsia Railway, Police, Fire and Emergency Services, Central Australia and Defence Support.
Jodeen Terese Carney (born 9 December 1965) is an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n politician. She has been a
Country Liberal PartyThe Northern Territory Country Liberal Party is a Northern Territory political party affiliated with both the Liberal and National parties. It is a member of the Coalition....
member of the
Northern Territory Legislative AssemblyThe Northern Territory Legislative Assembly is the unicameral parliament of the Northern Territory in Australia. It sits in Parliament House, located on State Square, close to the centre of the city of Darwin.-History:...
since September 2001, representing the Alice Springs-based electorate of
AraluenAraluen is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1983, replacing the electorate of Alice Springs, which had been abolished as part of the enlargement of the Assembly...
. She is the Shadow Attorney-General, and Shadow Minister for Justice, Health, Family and Community Services, Business and Industry, Women's Policy, Territory Development, the AustralAsia Railway, Police, Fire and Emergency Services, Central Australia and Defence Support. Until 29 January 2008 she was also the Opposition Leader.
Early life
Carney was born in
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
,
VictoriaVictoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north, South Australia to the west, and Tasmania to the south, across the Bass Strait. Victoria is the most densely populated state, with over 70% of...
, and studied at Bendigo High School before commencing a law degree at the
University of MelbourneThe University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia, and the oldest in Victoria...
. She graduated in 1989, and moved to Alice Springs the following year in order to do her articles. In 1990, she was admitted to legal practice, and worked as a solicitor for the next seven years. In 1997, she opened her own local practice, which she operated until deciding to contest pre-selection for the Legislative Assembly seat of Araluen at the
2001 electionA general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia, on August 18, 2001. The centre-left Australian Labor Party , led by Clare Martin, won a surprising victory over the then-majority Country Liberal Party . Before this, the CLP had held 17 out the 25 seats in theNorthern Territory...
.
Career
Carney's bid for the pre-selection gained some media attention, as she was a reasonably high-profile candidate, but she was ultimately overlooked by the Alice Springs branch. However,
John ElferinkJohan Wessel Elferink is an Australian politician.He was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1997 to 2005, representing the rural electorate of MacDonnell...
, a sitting MP who had lost his preselection, complained to the party's Central Council, making claims of branch-stacking. The fallout from the letter was immense - on 25 November 2000, in what was dubbed by the local media as "The Night of the Long Knives", all the preselections of the Alice Springs branch were overturned, and the Central Council instead dictated who would run as a CLP candidate. Elferink was reinstated, Carney gained preselection for Araluen, and sitting MP and Minister
Loraine BrahamLoraine Margaret Braham is an Australian politician. She has been a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 1994, representing the electorate of Braitling...
was axed to make way for Peter Harvey, who had previously been chosen over Carney in Araluen. While the controversial and largely unprecedented decision from head office would almost ensure her a seat in parliament, it earned her many enemies in the local branch of the party.
While Araluen had been a reasonably safe seat for the Country Liberal Party, Carney faced a significant challenge from the
Australian Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party.Known as the ALP for short, the party is the current governing party of Australia, since the 2007 federal election...
candidate and two well-known independents. The CLP's vote dropped 27% from the 1997 election, the last contested by her long-running predecssor, Eric Poole, although she eventually achieved victory by 134 votes.
As a new opposition MLA, Carney immediately took on responsibility for several portfolios, including tourism, correctional services and communications. While she often acted as a conservative voice in the assembly on many issues, advocating a particularly hard line on issues of law and order (including
mandatory sentencingA mandatory sentence is a controversial court decision setting where judicial discretion is limited by law. Typically, people convicted of certain crimes must be punished with at least a minimum number of years in prison...
) and drug policy, this was not always the case, as she also clashed with her own party on several issues - most notably in 2003, when she crossed the floor to vote with the ALP in supporting legislation decreasing the age of consent for gay males.
In mid-2003, Deputy Opposition Leader Mike Reed resigned, and Carney was widely tipped as the favourite to succeed him. However, in a surprise result - widely put down to both her poor relationship with the influential Alice Springs branch and her support, against their wishes, for Denis Burke's leadership, she was defeated by Dr.Richard Lim. However, she soon changed sides and decided to support Mills after Burke refused to allow a conscience vote on the age of consent legislation. She was subsequently promoted, being made Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Justice, and then again in late 2004, being made Shadow Minister for Health.
Carney faced her first re-election bid at the
2005 electionA general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia, on June 18, 2005. The centre-left Australian Labor Party, led by Chief Minister Clare Martin, won a second term with a landslide victory, winning six of the ten seats held by the opposition Country Liberal Party in the 25-member...
. While commentators were generally divided on whether she would hold her seat, as it was the CLP's most marginal, almost no one expected the final result. On election day, there were massive and unprecedented swings to the
Australian Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party.Known as the ALP for short, the party is the current governing party of Australia, since the 2007 federal election...
in every seat in the Territory - except Araluen. While Burke, who had not long before regained the leadership, lost his seat of
BrennanBrennan is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1990, and derives its name from Harold "Tiger" Brennan, a former member of the Legislative Council and Mayor of Darwin...
, which was the safest CLP seat in the Territory, Carney easily held her seat with a swing in her favour in the vicinity of 5%.
Burke had already announced that he would stand down as leader if he lost the election, and as it became clear that he would lose his seat, making this moot, speculation turned to who would replace him. With Mills unlikely to take up the leadership again after having resigned as leader not long before on the grounds that he had been ineffective, and potential aspirants
John ElferinkJohan Wessel Elferink is an Australian politician.He was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1997 to 2005, representing the rural electorate of MacDonnell...
and
Sue CarterSusan Jill Carter is an Australian politician. She was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2000 to 2005, representing the central Darwin electorate of Port Darwin...
having been defeated, Carney emerged as the leading candidate, and was ultimately chosen as Burke's replacement.
Though she had not been Opposition Leader for long, Carney oversaw a change in Country Liberal Party policy, shifting it notably to the left - such as attacking the government's law and order policies from a humanitarian, rather than hardline perspective - a position more traditionally aligned with the current government. She adopted a somewhat more congenial attitude towards
Chief MinisterIn Australia, a Chief Minister is the head of government of a self-governing territory, while the head of government of a state is a Premier.The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory is appointed by the Administrator, who in normal circumstances will appoint the head of whatever party holds the...
Clare MartinClare Majella Martin is a former Australian politician. She is the current CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service . A former journalist, she was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995...
than her predecessor and tended to be more subtle in her means of attacking Martin.
On 29 January 2008,
Terry MillsTerrence Kennedy Mills is the current Country Liberal Party leader and opposition leader in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 29 January 2008...
replaced Carney as opposition leader in a party-room ballot.
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