Stephen Peter Arthur Wettenhall (born 15 February 1963) was the

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 ...

Member of 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 ...

for Barron River. He was first elected in the

2006 Queensland state election An election was held in the Australian state of Queensland on 9 September 2006 to elect the 89 members of the state's Legislative Assembly, after being announced by Premier Peter Beattie on 15 August 2006. The election saw the incumbent Labor ...

, and was defeated in the 2012 state election.

Politics

Born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts and Laws at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

where he was politically active on campus and was elected by the student body as Chair of the Monash Association of Students. He established his own legal firm in

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

in 1993. For the next 13 years he specialised in criminal defence advocacy. His firm expanded and accepted instructions in a wide variety of matters including criminal injuries compensation and discrimination and employment cases. He also continued to represent indigenous clients in Cape York and was retained periodically by Aboriginal legal services in the

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is ...

Mount Isa Mount Isa ( ) is a city in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, Australia. It came into existence because of the vast mineral deposits found in the area. Mount Isa Mines (MIM) is one of the most productive single mines in world history, bas ...

and Cairns to represent their clients. He takes a very strong and active interest in environment and conservation issues and has served two terms as President of the Cairns and Far North Environment Centre. He is also a founding and honorary life member of the Cairns Community Legal Centre. After the 2009 state election, Wettenhall was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism and in February 2011, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary assisting the Premier for Economic Development in the Far North

State committee service

Wettenhall was a member of the panel of temporary Speakers, the Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee, the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee and the Investigation into Altruistic Surrogacy Select Committee. He also sat on various Parliamentary Caucus Committees. He was also a member of the Regional Queensland Council reporting to the Minister for Communities. In this role he was an ''ex officio'' member of the FNQ Regional Disability Council, a ministerial advisory body. He also chaired the FNQ Ministerial Regional Community Forums.

Current

Wettenhall has returned to legal practice in Cairns under his own name and is also a nationally accredited and Queensland Law Society approved mediator trading as Cairns Mediation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wettenhall, Steve 1963 births Living people Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland 21st-century Australian politicians