Glenn Sterle (born 3 January 1960) is an Australian politician. A former trade union organiser, 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 t ...

member of the Australian Senate since 2005, representing the state of

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 ...

Career

Trucking business

Sterle was 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 ...

, but was raised in the Perth suburb of Langford. He attended Thornlie Senior High School, but dropped out at the age of 17 to work as a furniture removalist. Three years later, he founded his own business operating road trains throughout northern

and the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

. He spent fourteen years working as an owner-operator before giving up his business to take on a position as an organiser with the Transport Workers Union in 1991.

Trade union

Aside from working as an organiser, Sterle served on his local branch committee, and was ultimately elected to the union's federal council in 1998, remaining in all three positions until his election to the Senate in 2004. His time with the union included a brief stint as acting state secretary in 1998 and an integral role in a major airline strike in the state in 2000. It was also during this period that Sterle received the Centenary Medal, in 2003, for services to training in the transport industry.

Party-political

Sterle's involvement with the union prompted him to join the

in 1991, and in 1999, he was elected as a delegate to the party's state conference. He served as the ALP's transport policy convener in 2000, and was a delegate to the party's national conference in 2002 and 2004. He subsequently decided to make a bid to enter parliament, and in the lead-up to the 2004 federal election, challenged the preselection of veteran senator and former cabinet minister

Peter Cook Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English actor, comedian, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishme ...

. Cook was determined to remain in parliament, but withdrew from the ballot of their shared Centre Faction when it became clear that Sterle had achieved enough support to win. As a result, Sterle gained the second position on the party's Senate ticket and was easily elected.

Senate

Sterle's term began on 1 July 2005. He has served on a variety of Senate and joint-house committees, notably Rural and Regional Affairs, and Transport: Legislation and References. He served as a temporary Chair of Committees from 12 November 2013 to 9 May 2016.Senator Glenn Sterle (official website)
at Parliament of Australia Sterle was appointed Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety in Bill Shorten's shadow ministry in June 2018, and retained the position in the Anthony Albanese's shadow ministry after the 2019 election.

References

External links

Summary of parliamentary voting for Senator Glenn Sterle on TheyVoteForYou.org.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sterle, Glenn 1960 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians Members of the Australian Senate for Western Australia Politicians from Melbourne Trade unionists from Melbourne Recipients of the Centenary Medal Members of the Australian Senate 21st-century Australian politicians