Lee Rhiannon

Lee Rhiannon
Senator for New South Wales
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2011
Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council
In office 27 March 1999 – 19 July 2010
Personal details
Born	Lee Brown 30 May 1951 (1951-05-30) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Greens
Website	LeeRhiannon.org.au

Lee Rhiannon (born 30 May 1951), an Australian politician, is a Senator for New South Wales, elected at the 2010 federal election, representing the Australian Greens. Prior to her election to the Australian parliament, Rhiannon was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council, serving between 1999 and 2010, representing the NSW Greens.

Early life

Lee Rhiannon was born Lee Brown, the daughter of Bill and Freda Brown, who were long-term members of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and later the Soviet-loyal Socialist Party. Her parents' membership of the CPA led to documentation of her life by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) from as early as the age of seven. She joined the Socialist Party around 1973.

She sat the New South Wales Higher School Certificate at Sydney Girls High School in 1969 and obtained a Bachelor of Science, majoring in botany and zoology with honours in botany, at the University of New South Wales, graduating in 1975.

During the 1970s Rhiannon was arrested during anti-apartheid protests. In the 1980s she helped organise the "peace camp" protest outside the joint US-Australian defence facility at Pine Gap, central Australia. According to Mark Aarons, she left the Socialist Party in the early 1980s. Rhiannon edited the Soviet-funded and backed newspaper Survey from 1988 until it ceased publication in 1990. She joined the Greens in 1990.

Lee Brown married Paddy O'Gorman, from whom she separated in 1987. They had three children. Following their separation, she adopted the surname "Rhiannon", the name of a figure from Welsh mythology.

Parliamentary career

New South Wales

Lee Rhiannon at a press briefing in 2007

Rhiannon contested the New South Wales Legislative Council at the 1999 state election for the Australian Greens. She was elected with three percent of the statewide vote (more than 100,000 votes), joining fellow Green Ian Cohen in the state's upper house of parliament. She was re-elected with over nine percent of the vote (more than 300,000 votes) at the 2007 state election, taking her seat with three other Greens MLCs.

Rhiannon used her New South Wales Parliamentary maiden speech in 1999 to announce her opposition to a development proposal by the Carr Labor Government for Walsh Bay. Rhiannon called on the Australian Labor Party to advance instead the Party's constitutional ideals for "redistribution of political and economic power" and "the development of public enterprises based upon... forms of social ownership". Rhiannon also spoke against Australia's British colonial legacy and announced that she was the first MLC to sit in the NSW Parliament without the title "honourable". She spoke of her family's involvement in the labour movement and acknowledged her parents' membership of the Communist Party of Australia and said she was proud of their tradition of "optimistic social activism". She reiterated Greens opposition to privatisation of public assets and to the Howard Government's Goods and Services Tax.

Rhiannon served on the following Committees in state parliament: General Purpose Standing Committees, Joint Select Committees on the Cross City Tunnel, a Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, a Standing Committee on Law and Justice, a Select Committee on the NSW Taxi Industry, a Select Committee on the Increase in Prisoner Population, and a Committee on the Office of the Ombudsman and Police Integrity Commission.

In November 2002, in the week prior to protests against the World Trade Organisation in Sydney, Rhiannon spoke in support of the protesters and organised a public conference on Civil Disobedience at NSW Parliament. Rhiannon spoke against police actions during the S11 Protests, which violently protested against meetings of the World Economic Forum in Melbourne in 2000. Rhiannon called on Police Minister Michael Costa to guarantee that police violence would not be used against protesters in Sydney. Costa in return called on Rhiannon to resign for hosting the civil disobedience seminar. Rhiannon lobbied the Vatican against considering the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, for the position of Pope because of his conservative views. In 2007 she referred him to the parliamentary privileges committee, alleging "contempt of parliament" for comments he made in opposition to embryonic stem cell research legislation.

During her term in the NSW Parliament, she was the Greens NSW Parliamentary spokesperson for the following portfolio areas:

Firearms; Donations; Mineral Resources; Roads; Transport; Health; Sexuality and Gender Identity; Electoral Issues; Industrial Relations; Attorney Generals; Parliamentary Process; Ports & Waterways; Gaming & Racing; Youth; South East NSW; Women; Animal Welfare; Rural Affairs; Science; and the Hunter region.

Federal parliament

Rhiannon contested and won a seat in the Australian Senate for New South Wales at the 2010 federal election for the Australian Greens. She resigned from the NSW Legislative Council when the federal election was called, with a ballot of party members selecting Cate Faehrmann to fill the casual vacancy.

Rhiannon was elected with 10.7 percent of the statewide vote (more than 400,000 votes), a swing to the Greens in New South Wales of 2.3 percent since the previous federal election. She will share the balance of power with eight other Greens Senators from July 2011.

The NSW Greens State Conference prior to the 2011 NSW State Election adopted of a resolution in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. In support of the statement, Rhiannon said it was "motivated by the universal principles of freedom, justice and equal rights" and also "I see the value of that tactic as a way to promoting Palestinian human rights." Following the election, Federal leader Bob Brown said that he had conveyed his disapproval of this policy emphasis to Rhiannon. In December 2011, the NSW Greens abandoned their official support for an international boycott against Israel and resolved to actively support the Australian Greens position. Rhiannon said that this "recognises the legitimacy of the BDS campaign as a political tactic and also recognises that there is a diversity of views in the community and the Greens."

Announcing portfolio responsibilities for the Australian Greens in June 2011, Bob Brown allocated Rhiannon the following portfolios:

Democracy; Local Government; Higher Education; Assisting on National Security; Women; International Aid and Development; Animal Welfare; and Forests.

Other political and community engagement

• High School Students Against Vietnam War, 1968
• Organiser with Low Cost Housing for Glebe Estate from 1971–1976
• Secretary, Waverley International Year of the Child Committee 1978-1980
• Organiser for Bondi Junction Residents Action Group from 1974–1978
• Member of Women's Advisory Council to the NSW Government, 1980–82
• Secretary, Union of Australian Women (NSW Branch), 1980–83

• Organiser for Women Against Global Violence and Women for Survival, 1983–85
• Member of the Woollahra P&C, 1984–89
• Organiser for Parents Support Public Education, 1998
• Convenor, Coalition for Gun Control 1988-92
• Director, Rainforest Information Centre, 1990–1992
• Director, AID/WATCH 1993-98

External links

• NSW Greens Homepage
• Australian Greens Homepage
• Text of Maiden Speech by Rhiannon to NSW Parliament
• LeeRhiannon.org.au - official website