Matthew James Thistlethwaite (born 6 September 1972) is an Australian politician. He has been an

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

since 2013, representing the electorate of Kingsford Smith. He was formerly a member of 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 ...

from 2011 to 2013. Since 1 June 2022, Thistlethwaite has served as Assistant Minister for Defence, Veterans' Affairs and the Republic in the

ministry Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian ...

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...

. He previously served as Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs and Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs in the Gillard government from March to July 2013, and as Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Transport in the

Rudd ''Scardinius'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae commonly called rudds. Locally, the name "rudd" without any further qualifiers is also used for individual species, particularly the common rudd (''S. erythrophthalmus''). Th ...

government from July to September 2013. Before joining Parliament, he was the general secretary of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party.

Early life

Thistlethwaite was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

on 6 September 1972. He grew up in the suburb of Maroubra. He graduated from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

with a Bachelor of Economics, and also holds diplomas in law and legal practice from the

University of Technology, Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021 ...

. He was the first member of his family to attend university.

Career

In 1995 Thistlethwaite began working at the

Australian Workers Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exerci ...

as an industrial officer. In 2001 he was elected as a state vice-president of the union. He joined the ALP at the age of 22 and was president of NSW Young Labor from 1997 to 1998. In 2004 Thistlethwaite was elected deputy assistant secretary of

Unions NSW The Labor Council of New South Wales, branded Unions NSW, is the peak body for trade unions in the state of New South Wales, Australia. As of 2005 there are 67 unions and 8 Rural and Regional Trades & Labor Councils affiliated to the Labor Coun ...

. In this role he represented workers in public sector enterprise agreement negotiations and in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. He was a co-ordinator of the Your Rights at Work campaign in New South Wales against the Howard Government's

WorkChoices WorkChoices was the name given to changes made to the federal industrial relations laws in Australia by the Howard Government in 2005, being amendments to the ''Workplace Relations Act 1996'' by the ''Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices ...

laws. Thistlethwaite is a former director of the State Transit Authority of NSW and the NSW Manufacturing Council. He was a member of the Racing Industry Participants Advisory Council, and an executive member of the NSW Jockeys Association. He was elected general secretary of NSW Labor from 2008 to 2010. During his time as NSW ALP secretary Thistlethwaite backed

Frank Sartor Francesco Ernest "Frank" Sartor AO (born 9 November 1951) is a former Australian politician who served as New South Wales Minister for Climate Change and the Environment and Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Cancer) between 2009 and ...

's unsuccessful candidacy to replace premier

Nathan Rees Nathan Rees () (born 12 February 1968) is a former Australian politician who served as the 41st Premier of New South Wales and parliamentary leader of the New South Wales division of the Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009. Rees wa ...

and Rees was instead replaced by

Kristina Keneally Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an American-born Australian politician who was a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 until April 2022, when she resigned to unsuccessfully contest the House of Represe ...

. Before entering Parliament, Thistlethwaite worked as a senior consultant with law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques.

Political career

Thistlethwaite sought to become the endorsed Labor candidate for the House of Representatives seat of Kingsford Smith in Sydney's eastern suburbs, for the 2004 election. However, Peter Garrett was chosen by the then Labor leader

Mark Latham Mark William Latham (born 28 February 1961) is an Australian politician and media commentator, currently serving as a member in the New South Wales Legislative Council. He previously served as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and ...

. He was endorsed for a seat in the Senate, representing New South Wales, at the 2010 election. He was successful, and his term began on 1 July 2011. On 18 July 2011 he gave his first speech in the Senate. Soon after his term began, Thistlethwaite was appointed to serve on five Parliamentary Committees. In August 2012, Thistlethwaite became Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Electricity Prices. Following the announcement by Peter Garrett that he would not recontest the seat of Kingsford Smith at the next federal election, Thistlethwaite announced on 2 July 2013 that he would again seek Labor preselection; and gained endorsement on 20 July 2013, defeating Tony Bowen, the mayor of Randwick. Thistlethwaite was elected as the member for Kingsford-Smith at the election held on 7 September 2013. Thistlethwaite was one of three people to have moved from the Senate to the House of Representatives at this election (the others were his ALP colleague

David Feeney David Ian Feeney (born 5 March 1970) is a former Australian politician. He was the Labor member for the division of Batman in the House of Representatives from 7 September 2013 to 1 February 2018. Before that, he was a member of the Australian ...

in Batman and former Nationals Senate leader

Barnaby Joyce Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce (born 17 April 1967) is an Australian politician who served as the 17th deputy prime minister of Australia under Malcolm Turnbull from 2016 to 2018 and under Scott Morrison from 2021 to 2022. He was the leader of the ...

in New England). In 2017 the

announced a national vote on the republic during the first term of a future Labor government, and appointed Matt Thistlethwaite as the first 'Shadow Assistant Minister for an Australian Head of State'. Thistlethwaite is a senior figure in the

Labor Right The Labor Right, also known as Modern Labor, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more economically conservative and, in some cases, more socially conservative. The Labor ...

faction and stands as the current convenor of the NSW branch. In 2020, he was elected to replace

Joel Fitzgibbon Joel Andrew Fitzgibbon (born 16 January 1962) is a retired Australian politician. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has served in the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2022, representing the New South Wales seat of Hunt ...

as the convenor within the ALP. ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'' reported that "by becoming the NSW factional boss, Thistlethwaite de facto takes the title of national Right convener". In 2022 he was appointed Assistant Minister for Defence, Assistant Minister for Veterans' Affairs, and Assistant Minister for the Republic in the Albanese ministry.

Personal life

Thistlethwaite served as the president of the

Maroubra Surf Life Saving Club The Maroubra Surf Life Saving Club is one of Australia's oldest Surf Life Saving Clubs, founded in 1906. The club was established in 1906 the Club is situated at the northern end of Maroubra Beach in Sydney. See also *Surf lifesaving *Surf Life ...

for four years.

References

External links

* , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Thistlethwaite, Matt 1972 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Kingsford Smith Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Australian Senate for New South Wales Politicians from Sydney Australian solicitors Australian trade unionists 21st-century Australian politicians Australian Labor Party officials Australian republicans