Morris Iemma
Encyclopedia
Morris Iemma is a former Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician and 40th Premier of New South Wales
Premiers of New South Wales
The Premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster system, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislature...

, succeeding Bob Carr
Bob Carr
Robert John "Bob" Carr , Australian statesman, was Premier of New South Wales from 4 April 1995 to 3 August 2005. He holds the record for the longest continuous service as premier of NSW...

 after he resigned on 3 August 2005. Iemma led the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 to victory in the 2007 election before resigning as Premier on 5 September 2008, and as a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 on 19 September 2008.

Background

Iemma was born in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, the only child of Giuseppe and Maria Iemma, migrants from Martone
Martone
Martone is a town and comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, in southern Italy....

, Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. Maria Iemma worked in the clothing trade, and Giuseppe Iemma, a communist supporter in Italy, worked as a machine labourer. Morris joined the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 when he was 16. He was educated at state schools in Sydney, including the now-closed Narwee Boys' High School
Narwee High School
Narwee High School , known from 1958-1991 as Narwee Boys' High School , is a former high school in the southern Sydney suburb of Narwee, New South Wales, Australia....

, and has an economics degree from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

 and a law degree from the University of Technology, Sydney
University of Technology, Sydney
The University of Technology Sydney is a university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1981, although its origins trace back to the 1870s. UTS is notable for its central location as the only university with its main campuses within the Sydney CBD...

.

In 1997 Iemma married Santina Raiti, with whom he has four young children.

Iemma is a member of the dominant right-wing
Labor Right
The Labor Right, or Labor Unity in some State branches, or Centre Unity in NSW, is the organised faction of the Australian Labor Party that tends to be more economically liberal and socially conservative than Labor Left....

 faction of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party. From 1984 to 1986 he was an official with the Commonwealth Bank Employees Union
Finance Sector Union
The Finance Sector Union of Australia is an Australian white collar trade union formed from the amalgamation of various smaller unions drawn from the banking, insurance, trustee, broking, and general finance industries.-Origins:...

. He then worked as an adviser to Senator Graham Richardson
Graham Richardson
Graham Frederick Richardson , a former Australian politician, was a Senator for New South Wales from 1983–94 for the Australian Labor Party, a senior minister in Hawke and Keating governments, and is now a political lobbyist, public speaker, and media commentator. During his time in politics,...

 who held the environment and social security portfolios in the Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....

 and Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...

 federal governments.

Parliamentary career

In 1991 Iemma was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 for the seat of Hurstville
Electoral district of Hurstville
Hurstville was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, named after and including the Sydney suburb of Hurstville....

, defeating a sitting Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 member, with the slogan "A local who listens". When the seat of Hurstville was abolished in 1999, he won a tough pre-selection battle for the safe seat of Lakemba
Electoral district of Lakemba
Lakemba is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales in Sydney's Inner West. It has been held by the Australian Labor Party since its creation in 1927...

, which included part of the old seat of Hurstville. Iemma held Lakemba until his resignation in 2008.

Iemma was Minister for Public Works and Services and Minister Assisting the Premier on Citizenship (1999-2003), and as Minister for Sport and Recreation (2001-2003), and was Minister for Health (2003-2005). His tenure as Health Minister was generally free of major controversy, although he has said of the Health portfolio: "it is one of the biggest and most difficult jobs in government".

Premier

First ministry


When Bob Carr
Bob Carr
Robert John "Bob" Carr , Australian statesman, was Premier of New South Wales from 4 April 1995 to 3 August 2005. He holds the record for the longest continuous service as premier of NSW...

 announced his intention to retire as New South Wales Premier on 3 August 2005, Iemma immediately announced his candidacy to succeed him as leader of the NSW Labor Party and thus as Premier. Police Minister Carl Scully
Carl Scully
Patrick Carl Scully , was an Australian politician and minister in the New South Wales state government before his forced resignation on 25 October 2006....

 was also a candidate, but on 29 July he withdrew. Iemma was the only candidate when the Labor Caucus met on 2 August to elect a new leader. He was formally appointed by Professor Marie Bashir
Marie Bashir
Marie Roslyn Bashir AC, CVO is the present Governor of New South Wales since 2001 and also the Chancellor of the University of Sydney since 2007. Born in Narrandera, New South Wales, Bashir graduated from the University of Sydney in 1956 and held various medical positions, with a particular...

, the Governor of New South Wales
Governors of New South Wales
The Governor of New South Wales is the state viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who is equally shared with 15 other sovereign nations in a form of personal union, as well as with the eleven other jurisdictions of Australia, and resides predominantly in her...

, on 3 August.

Iemma immediately faced a number of resignations. Deputy Premier and Treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...

 Andrew Refshauge
Andrew Refshauge
Andrew John Refshauge was an Australian politician and Deputy Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005.Refshauge was born in Melbourne, the son of Major-General Sir William Refshauge AC CBE ED , who later became Honorary Physician to Queen Elizabeth II 1955–64 and Director-General of the...

, and senior minister Craig Knowles
Craig Knowles
Craig John Knowles is a former Australian politician and member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1990 to 2005....

, once considered a potential leader himself, both declared they would leave politics. Iemma took the Treasury portfolio for himself. Among his first policy moves as new Premier, Iemma announced the immediate repealing of the vendor tax (a tax on investment property) that was introduced by the Carr government in 2003.

Opinion polls in August showed that Labor under Iemma's leadership was maintaining the lead over the Liberal opposition it had enjoyed under Carr, despite Iemma's relatively low profile. His short-term position was improved by the sudden resignation of Liberal leader John Brogden. This was seen in the results of the by-elections on 17 September caused by the resignation from Parliament of Carr, Refshauge and Knowles. Labor retained all three seats - Maroubra (Carr's seat) very easily, Macquarie Fields (Knowles's seat) comfortably, despite a substantial swing to the Liberals, and Marrickville (Refshauge's seat) despite a strong challenge from the Australian Greens
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...

. In Marrickville, where the Labor candidate was Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt
Carmel Tebbutt
Carmel Mary Tebbutt is an Australian politician. She is the Australian Labor Party Member for Marrickville in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and was Deputy Premier of New South Wales from 2008 to 2011. She was also Minister for Health in the Keneally Government...

 (switching from the Legislative Council
New South Wales Legislative Council
The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...

), the Labor primary vote increased in the absence of a Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 candidate.

Despite its relatively short term in office, the Iemma Government faced significant service delivery problems in transport, health care and future water supplies. Sydney newspapers consistently asserted that Iemma's government was more interested in "spin" than policy development. Other embarrassments beset his premiership. For example, in February 2006, while awaiting the start of a COAG
Council of Australian Governments
The Council of Australian Governments is an organisation consisting of the federal government, the governments of the six states and two mainland territories and the Australian Local Government Association. It was established in May 1992 after agreement by the then Prime Minister, Premiers and...

 media conference in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

, while chatting to Victorian Premier
Premiers of Victoria
The Premier of Victoria is the leader of the government in the Australian state of Victoria. The Premier is appointed by the Governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Legislative Assembly....

 Steve Bracks
Steve Bracks
Stephen Philip Bracks AC is a former Australian politician and the 44th Premier of Victoria. He first won the electoral district of Williamstown in 1994 for the Australian Labor Party, and was party leader and Premier from 1999 to 2007....

 and not realising cameras were operating, Iemma was recorded as saying:
"Today? This fuckwit who's the new CEO of the Cross City Tunnel has ... been saying what controversy? There is no controversy."

Nevertheless, in the months leading up to his first election as Labor leader, he maintained a comfortable lead in various opinion polls and was re-elected in the March 2007 election. Labor was returned with 52 seats compared to 35 for the Coalition.

Second ministry


On 15 July 2007, after several failures on the NSW rail system, Iemma claimed that the government was at war with rail unions. In November 2007 the Iemma government lifted the ban on genetically modified canola
Canola
Canola refers to a cultivar of either Rapeseed or Field Mustard . Its seeds are used to produce edible oil suitable for consumption by humans and livestock. The oil is also suitable for use as biodiesel.Originally, Canola was bred naturally from rapeseed in Canada by Keith Downey and Baldur R...

 production and started the process of privatising the state's electricity system. On 3 May 2008 the New South Wales ALP's State Conference rejected, by 702 to 107 votes, the Iemma government's plans to privatise the state's electricity system.

Resignation

On 5 September 2008, Iemma announced his resignation as Premier after losing the support of his caucus faction over the details of a proposed cabinet reshuffle sparked by the resignation of Deputy Premier John Watkins. Iemma had proposed that five other Ministers also depart, including Treasurer Michael Costa and Health Minister Reba Meagher
Reba Meagher
Reba Paige Meagher is a former Australian politician who was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing the electoral district of Cabramatta. She was a minister in various portfolios from 2003 to 2008. On 6 September 2008 Meagher announced that she would not be seeking a...

. Iemma's faction, Centre Unity, supported the sacking of the Treasurer but not the other four Ministers. Faced with this rejection, Iemma resigned. The caucus unanimously selected Nathan Rees
Nathan Rees
Nathan Rees MP, , an Australian politician, was the 41st Premier of New South Wales and parliamentary leader of the New South Wales division of the Australian Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009...

 as his Premier in his stead.

Iemma resigned from parliament on 19 September 2008, ending his 17-year political career, and forcing a by-election in the seat of Lakemba.

In May 2009, Iemma was admitted to hospital suffering from an acute brain inflammation—viral meningitis
Viral meningitis
Viral meningitis refers to meningitis caused by a viral infection. It is sometimes referred to as "aseptic meningitis" in contrast to meningitis caused by bacteria.An example is lymphocytic choriomeningitis....

. As a result, he lost movement in his legs. He is undergoing physiotherapy with the goal of recovering their full use.

External links

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