Annette Kay Hurley (born 23 March 1955) is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n politician. Elected at the 2004 federal election, she was a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member of the

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from July 2005, representing the state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. She announced in July 2010 that she would not re-contest her seat at the following federal election and her six-year term ended on 30 June 2011. Hurley was educated at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

, where she graduated in science. Before entering federal politics, she was member of the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was creat ...

for the safe Labor seat of Napier in Adelaide's northern suburbs from 1993 to 2002, and was Deputy Leader of the Opposition 1997–2002. At the

2002 South Australian state election State elections were held in South Australia on 9 February 2002. All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election, along with half of the 22 seats in the South Australian Legislative Council. The incumbent Liberal Party ...

, she decided to stand in

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, a previously safe

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seat that had been made marginal in a redistribution. Hurley lost narrowly to Liberal incumbent

Malcolm Buckby Malcolm Robert Buckby (born 8 September 1951) is a former politician who lost his seat in the electoral district of Light in the 2006 SA election. He is a former research economist and farmer first elected in 1993 replacing Bruce Eastick B ...

. At that election, Labor fell one seat short of a majority. Had Hurley won Light, she would have delivered her party majority government and become South Australia's first female Deputy Premier. In June 2005, before even taking her seat in the Senate, Hurley was elected to the Opposition front bench and appointed Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. She lost her front bench position in December 2006, after a shadow cabinet reshuffle instigated by new Leader of the Opposition

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...

due to criticism of her fast promotion to the frontbench despite the fact that she had been deputy leader of the SA branch of the ALP. Her promotion to the federal frontbench was a reward for taking the political risks which saw the end of her career in the South Australian Parliament and stopped her from becoming the state's Deputy Premier rather than the misperception that it was solely because of a factional arrangement.

References

Annette Hurley, First Speech to ParliamentAnnette Hurley, Senate Biography
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'', 7 December 2006. , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hurley, Annette 1955 births Living people University of Adelaide alumni Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Australian Senate for South Australia Women members of the Australian Senate Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Women members of the South Australian House of Assembly