Jarrod Pieter Bleijie (; born 25 January 1982) is an Australian politician in the
Queensland parliament
The Parliament of Queensland is the legislature of Queensland, Australia. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the Monarch of Australia and the Legislative Assembly. It has been the only unicameral s ...
. Bleijie was elected as the member for
Kawana at the
2009 state election, and is the third member since the seat's inception at the
2001 state election. He served as
Attorney-General of Queensland
The Attorney-General of Queensland is a ministry of the Government of Queensland with responsibility for the state's legal and justice system.
The current Attorney-General of Queensland is Shannon Fentiman.
List of attorneys-general of Queens ...
from 2012 until 2015.
Biography
Early life
Jarrod Bleijie was born on 25 January 1982 in
Griffith, New South Wales
Griffith is a major regional city in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area that is located in the north-western part of the Riverina region of New South Wales, known commonly as the food bowl of Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith ...
. His father is Pieter Bleijie and his mother, Christine (Cooper) Bleijie. They moved to
Caloundra
Caloundra ( ) is a coastal town and the southernmost town in the Sunshine Coast Region in South East Queensland, Australia.
Geography
Caloundra is north of the Brisbane central business district. Caloundra is accessible from Landsborough ra ...
, Queensland, in 1989. He attended Griffith Primary School, Caloundra State School, and Caloundra State High School, where he graduated in 2000 as school captain. He studied politics at the
University of the Sunshine Coast
The University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) is a public university based on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. After opening with 524 students in 1996 as the Sunshine Coast University College, it was later renamed the University of the ...
before transferring to Brisbane to complete a Bachelor of Laws at
Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area viz. Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. The univ ...
. He graduated in 2005.
Career as a lawyer
While studying law, Bleijie was employed as an
articled clerk
Articled clerk is a title used in Commonwealth countries for one who is studying to be an accountant or a lawyer. In doing so, they are put under the supervision of someone already in the profession, now usually for two years, but previously thre ...
initially at the
Maroochydore
Maroochydore ( ) is a coastal town in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia.
The town was subdivided from the Cotton Tree reserve by Surveyor Thomas O'Connor in 1903. The land was acquired from William Pettigrew who had a timber de ...
law firm of JJ Riba & Company and then at the Sunshine Coast, Queensland law firm Sajen Legal. Following his graduation, he was employed as a solicitor at Sajen Legal. During his legal career, Bleijie specialised in commercial law and management rights.
Parliamentary career
He was elected to the
Parliament of Queensland
The Parliament of Queensland is the legislature of Queensland, Australia. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the Monarch of Australia and the Legislative Assembly. It has been the only unicameral s ...
in
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
, representing the Sunshine Coast electorate of
Kawana.
He was promoted to the shadow ministry as Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Justice and Corrective Services, by then Opposition Leader
John-Paul Langbroek
John-Paul Honoré Langbroek (born 31 January 1961) is an Australian politician who has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland representing the centre-right Liberal Party and its successor, the centre-right Liberal National Part ...
in November 2010. Following a leadership change in March 2011, with former
Lord Mayor of Brisbane
The Lord Mayor of Brisbane is the chief executive of the City of Brisbane, the capital of the Australian state of Queensland, and the head of the Brisbane City Council. Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner of the Liberal National Party was sworn in on ...
Campbell Newman
Campbell Kevin Thomas Newman (born 12 August 1963) is a former Australian politician who served as the 38th Premier of Queensland from 26 March 2012 to 14 February 2015. He served as the member for Ashgrove in the Legislative Assembly of Quee ...
taking over the leadership of the
Liberal National Party of Queensland
The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) is a major political party in Queensland, Australia. It was formed in 2008 by a merger of the Queensland divisions of the Liberal Party and the National Party. At a federal level and in most other ...
(LNP) from outside the parliament, he was reappointed Shadow Attorney-General, maintaining his Justice responsibilities. He re-contested and won the state seat of Kawana with a
two-party preferred
In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...
swing of 19.9 points, holding the seat by a 26.8-point margin. He now has one of the safest seats in the Queensland Parliament.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice (2012–2015)
Following a landslide victory for the Newman-led Liberal National Party, in which Labor secured only 7 of 89 seats, in March 2012
newly elected premier Campbell Newman appointed Bleijie to cabinet as
Attorney-General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
and Minister for Justice.
As Attorney-General, Bleijie introduced an amendment that renamed Queensland civil partnerships for same-sex couples into registered relationships and disallowed state-sanctioned ceremonies. Bleijie subsequently unveiled legislation to ban single people and same-sex couples from having a child through surrogacy. In 2015, Bleijie declared his support for same-sex marriage.
Opposition (2015–present)
After the defeat of the Newman government Bleijie has maintained a position on the opposition front bench under Springborg, Nicholls, Frecklington, and Crisafulli.
Criticism
Communications with Court of Appeal President McMurdo
In early 2014, Bleijie released details of a conversation he had with
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...
President
Margaret McMurdo
Margaret Anne McMurdo (born 30 August 1954) is the former president of the Queensland Court of Appeal. Appointed on 30 July 1998, she was the first female president of an appellate court in Australia. She resigned effective 24 March 2017 afte ...
concerning the appointment of judges. The week previously, McMurdo had criticised the Queensland government for appointing only one woman in the 17 judicial appointments over the last two years. Bleijie's comments to the media suggested McMurdo had sought a higher judicial appointment for her husband, Supreme Court Judge
Philip McMurdo. In an interview with the
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
, Walter Sofronoff
QC called for Bleijie's resignation, saying that Bleijie had betrayed McMurdo's confidence and was "unethical". Sofronoff also commented that Bleijie's comments had "the hint of a nasty schoolboy's snicker in it".
''Hannay v Newman and Bleijie''
On 1 April 2014,
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
lawyer Chris Hannay instituted proceedings against Bleijie and the Queensland Premier Campbell Newman for
defamation
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
. On 6 February 2014, Newman had commented to journalists that lawyers who represent
bikies "are hired guns. They take money from people who sell drugs to our teenagers and young people. Yes, everybody's got the right to be defended under the law, but you've got to see it for what it is: they are part of the machine, part of the criminal gang machine, and they will say and do anything to defend their clients, and try to get them off—and indeed progress their dishonest case. They are paid by criminal gangs".
Bleijie later remarked that Newman was "referring to Hannay Lawyers, based on the Gold Coast" and that he too was "quite disturbed by their advice and fear campaign". He also noted that he agreed with Newman's comments.
The case was settled out-of-court in 2016.
"Hannay Lawyers settles defamation case with Campbell Newman and Jarrod Bleijie"
by Courtney Wilson, ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, 16 May 2016
Personal life
He married Sally Lennox on 20 December 2002. They have two daughters and a son.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bleijie, Jarrod
1982 births
Living people
Australian solicitors
Attorneys-General of Queensland
Liberal National Party of Queensland politicians
Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
Queensland University of Technology alumni
People from Griffith, New South Wales
21st-century Australian politicians
Deputy opposition leaders