James Philip McKiernan (11 October 1944 – 10 August 2018) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

-born

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. Born in

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...

, Ireland, he was a

fitter and turner A machinist is a tradesperson or trained professional who not only operates machine tools, but also has the knowledge of tooling and materials required to create set ups on machine tools such as milling machines, grinders, lathes, and drilling ...

before entering politics. In Australia he was a union education officer for the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union. In 1984, he was elected to the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...

as 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 ...

Senator for

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. A one-time convenor of the Left faction, McKiernan was the Labor Caucus' returning officer for the Hawke versus Keating leadership ballot. He remained in the Senate until his retirement in 2002. He was married to Western Australian state MP

Jackie Watkins Jacqueline Patricia Watkins (born 3 June 1949) was elected to the Parliament of Western Australia on 19 February 1983 as the Labor Party Member for Joondalup. Watkins served as the Member for Joondalup until 4 February 1989. From 4 February 19 ...

from 1985. McKiernan died at his home in Perth on .

References

1944 births 2018 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Western Australia Members of the Australian Senate 21st-century Australian politicians 20th-century Australian politicians Irish emigrants to Australia People from County Cavan Deaths from cancer in Western Australia {{Australia-Labor-senator-stub