Meredith Burgmann
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Meredith Anne Burgmann (born 26 July 1947) is an Australian politician and Labor Party member and a former President of the
New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...
.


Early years

Burgmann was born in July 1947 at
Beecroft, New South Wales Beecroft is a suburb in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 22 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government areas of Hornsby Shire and City of Parramatta. B ...
to parents Victor Dudley Burgmann (son of Canberra Anglican bishop Ernest Henry Burgmann) and Lorna Constance Bradbury. Her late father was a chairman of the CSIRO. Her sister is
Verity Burgmann Verity Nancy Burgmann (born 17 September 1952) is Adjunct Professor of Politics in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University and Honorary Professorial Fellow in the eScholarship Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, where she ...
. She attended Blackfriars Correspondence School and Abbotsleigh School in Sydney, where she was headgirl. She attended
Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's six ...
and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1969, majoring in English and Government. She continued her studies at the University and obtained a Master of Arts in 1973 specialising in Foreign Policy. In 1981 she completed her doctorate on Industrial Relations at
Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...
. She became the first female President of the
National Tertiary Education Union The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) is an Australian trade union for all higher education and university employees. It is an industry union, and the only union working exclusively in the Australian university sector. Overview NTEU ...
. Burgmann joined the Australian Labor Party in 1971. She was involved in the Industrial Relations Committee between 1990 and 1995, the Foreign Affairs Committee between 1986 and 1990, as well as being a delegate to the Sydney Federal Executive Council. She was a Member of the New South Wales Labor Council between 1978 and 1991 and also of the
ACTU The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated trade union, unions and eight t ...
Congress between 1983 and 1989. She was a tutor and lecturer at Macquarie University from 1974, and became a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in 1989 and remained in that role until 1991. She taught Industrial Relations and Politics. In 1985 she married Glen Batchelor and they have one son. Batchelor and Burgmann divorced in 1990.


Political career

Some of her first forays into politics have been as an activist. She has been arrested 21 times and spent time in prison for running onto the
Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...
in 1971 during the Springboks tour. She claims to be the only person sent to prison for running onto a sporting field during a major sporting event. She was elected to the
New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...
on 25 May 1991. As an upper house member of parliament, she served as the chair on the Parliamentary Privileges and Ethics Committee. In that committee, she led an inquiry into certain paedophile conspiracy allegations made by the former politician
Franca Arena Franca Arena (; born 23 August 1937) is an Australian politician and activist. She was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1981, first for the Labor Party then as an Independent from 1997 until she left the Council in 19 ...
. It was generally acknowledged that the committee observed procedural fairness during that inquiryFrom protest in ambition. By Mark Robinson And Katrina Beikoff. 8 April 1999 ''Daily Telegraph'' and that her time as a politician has shown her to be an "independent and intellectual member" of the
New South Wales Parliament The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Each ...
. On 8 April 1999, she was elected as the President of the Council to replace the retiring President
Virginia Chadwick Virginia Anne Chadwick AO (19 December 194417 September 2009) was a Liberal Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1978 to 1999. She was the first NSW female Minister for Education; the first female President of the New South ...
.Upper hand. 8 April 1999 ''Daily Telegraph'' She was elected as President of the Council on 11 May. As President, she continued to reduce the size and the scale of the traditional opening of State Parliament. For the 1999 opening, she axed the 29-gun salute and she invited just three ambassadors, one from Thailand and the other two from Cuba and Vietnam. That was criticised for being left leaning since the last two nations have communist governments.The show goes on for Meredith. Miranda Devine. 26 August 1999 Daily Telegraph She further angered monarchists by ordering the removal of the Queen's portrait from the President's Office and replacing it with an Aboriginal dot painting. She retired as President on 27 March 2007, at the expiry of her term as a member of the Council. She is the longest serving female presiding officer in Australia. She is aunt to the comedian Charles Firth and to former New South Wales Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Climate Change and the Environment and Minister for Women, Verity Firth.


Later life

In the September 2008 New South Wales Council elections, Burgmann ran for the positions of Lord Mayor and councillor in the City of Sydney Council. She was defeated in the mayoral ballot by incumbent Lord Mayor
Clover Moore Clover Margaret Moore (née Collins, born 22 October 1945) is an Australian politician. She has been the List of Mayors and Lord Mayors of Sydney, Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney since 2004 and is currently the longest serving Lord Mayor of Syd ...
, becoming Labor's only councillor on the Council. She retired from the council in 2012. Burgmann is also a Consultant to the
United Nations Development Program The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
.Who’s Who Australia Burgmann was made a Member of the
Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...
in the
2020 Australia Day Honours The 2020 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 2020 by the Governor General of Australia, David Hurley. The Australia ...
for "significant service to the people and Parliament of New South Wales." Burgmann was an Ambassador for the
Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...
from 2005 until 2018. Burgmann was the President of the Australian Council for International Development, the peak body for the Australian NGO international aid and development sector, from 2008 until 2012.


Publications

In 1993, Burgmann started the
Ernie Awards The Ernie Awards, or the 'Ernies', are Australian awards for comments deemed misogynistic. They are held annually. They are named after former Australian Workers' Union secretary Ernie Ecob, who was known for his misogynistic remarks. One of ...
to draw attention to comments regarded as misogynist, and in 2007 published with Yvette Andrews ''The Ernies Book: 1000 Terrible Things Australian Men Have Said About Women''. She has also published articles on industrial, environmental and Aboriginal rights issues. In 1998 Burgmann and her sister Verity wrote ''Green Bans, Red Union: Environmental Activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation''.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgmann, Meredith 1947 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Members of the Order of Australia People educated at Abbotsleigh Presidents of the New South Wales Legislative Council Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians