Jai Travers Rowell (born 2 January 1977), an Australian former politician, was a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

representing

Wollondilly Wollondilly Shire is a periurban local government area adjacent to the south-western fringe of Sydney, parts of which fall into the Macarthur, Blue Mountains and Central Tablelands regions in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Wollondil ...

for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

from

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

to 2018. In April 2014 Rowell was appointed as Minister for Mental Health and Assistant Minister for Health during the Cabinet reshuffle under Premier

Mike Baird Michael Bruce Baird (born 1 April 1968) is an Australian investment banker and former politician who was the 44th Premier of New South Wales, the Minister for Infrastructure, the Minister for Western Sydney, and the Leader of the New South W ...

. Under Gladys Berejiklian as Premier, Rowell was appointed as Special Adviser to the Premier and the NSW Government on Science, Industry and Innovation, a first of its kind. Rowell was the first Liberal Indigenous member of the NSW Legislative Assembly. Rowell has been appointed by Western Sydney University as a Fellow of Law.

Early career and background

After completing a law degree at the

University of Western Sydney Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network u ...

he held various parliamentary positions including being an electorate officer and later an adviser in the Howard Government. Rowell has worked in both the state and federal parliaments. In 2004, he was elected as a Councillor and Liberal Leader and served eight and a half years including serving terms on the Local Government Association of NSW. Rowell was the first Liberal Indigenous member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for the Liberal Party and was the first Indigenous Local Councillor elected to Campbelltown City Council. Rowell grew up in South West Sydney including the Macarthur and Southern Highlands areas. He is the father of three boys and is married to Belinda.

Political career

On 29 October 2009, Rowell was pre-selected by the Liberal Party as their candidate in Wollondilly for the 2011 state election. During his campaign for election,

Angry Anderson Gary Stephen "Angry" Anderson (born 5 August 1947) is an Australian rock singer, songwriter, television personality and actor. He has been the lead vocalist with the hard rock band Rose Tattoo since 1976. As a solo artist, he is best known f ...

actively supported Rowell; who was elected with a swing of 18.6 points and won the seat with 64.7 per cent of the

two-party A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...

vote. Rowell won every booth in the electorate. His main opponent was the incumbent sitting member and Minister for Water,

Phil Costa Phillip John Costa (born 24 July 1949) is an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2007 until 2011, representing the electorate of Wollondilly. He served as Minister for Water and M ...

, representing

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 ...

. In 2015 Rowell recontested the seat and increased his primary vote from 49.9% to 58% and increased his two party preferred vote to 67.3%. Rowell again achieved a win at every single booth. Rowell was appointed as deputy government whip on 13 August 2013. Mr Rowell was further promoted to government whip on 25 February 2014. Due to the resignation of

Barry O'Farrell Barry Robert O'Farrell (born 24 May 1959) is a former Australian politician who has been Australia's High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan since May 2020. O'Farrell was the 43rd Premier of New South Wales and Minis ...

as Premier, and the subsequent ministerial reshuffle by Mike Baird, the new Liberal Leader, Rowell was appointed as Minister for Mental Health and Assistant Minister for Health and appointed as a member of Cabinet. Under new Premier Gladys Berejiklian, whom Rowell is close to, Rowell was appointed as Special Adviser to the Premier and the NSW Government on Science, Industry and Innovation, a first of its kind. He was also the Chair of the Legislative Committee on Environment and Planning and Deputy Chair of the Legislative Committee on Law and Safety and Chair of the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Ethics. In February 2018, Rowell announced he would not re-contest the 2019 election, and he resigned as Member for Wollondilly on 17 December 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowell, Jai 1977 births Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Western Sydney University alumni 21st-century Australian politicians