Gary Gray (politician)

Early life

He was born in Rotherham, Yorkshire, England, and emigrated to Australia with his family in 1966, settling in state housing in Whyalla, South Australia. Gray attended Whyalla High School, where he was the dux of his graduating year in 1976. After finishing high school he worked at the local BHP steelworks, and then at the Savings Bank of South Australia. He joined the Labor Party in 1974, and in May 1981, after graduating from the Australian National University with a degree in economics, he moved to Darwin.

Early political career

From then until May 1985 he was the assistant to Northern Territory opposition leader Bob Collins. He became a national organiser in March 1986, in which capacity he worked on every state Labor campaign between 1986 and 1993 and initiated the National Marginal Seats Campaign. During this time he met and married his wife Deborah, the daughter of former Labor finance minister Peter Walsh.

On 30 April 1993, just after Paul Keating won the 1993 election, he became National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party. Keating, in 2007, blamed Gray for the loss of the 1996 and 1998 elections, a view that was not shared by the leadership of the ALP at the time.

He resigned after seven years on 10 November 1999, citing personal and family reasons, and moved to Perth, Western Australia.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day honours of 2003, for "service to the Australian Labor Party and to politics through the introduction of modern campaign techniques, fundraising protocols for all political parties, affirmative action guidelines, and by strengthening the party's organisational and financial structure."

Corporate career

In April 2000, he quit working for the party hierarchy entirely, and took up a role with Wesfarmers as the Executive Director of the Western Australian Institute of Medical Research. Within a year, he was engaged by Woodside Petroleum as an adviser on their ultimately successful bid to repel the takeover of the company by the Shell Oil Company. Gray was then asked to join the company, becoming the Director of Corporate Affairs on the company's executive board. During his time at Woodside, Gray represented the company before governments across the world, acting as a negotiator, advocate and leader.

Political career

Gray left Woodside to contest the 2007 federal election for the seat of Brand in Western Australia, replacing retiring MP Kim Beazley. He won the seat on a 0.97 point swing and was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Infrastructure with Responsibility for Northern and Regional Australia in the First Rudd Ministry. His appointment was welcomed by the mining sector and business ("Miners welcome Gary Gray into resources job" Australian Financial Review 25 March 2013). The Australian Mines and Metals Association's Chief Executive Steve Knott issued a statement welcoming the appointment, saying Gray was "highly regarded" by the resources sector.

During the 2010 leadership change in the Labor Party, Gray declared his support for Julia Gillard, and has maintained support for Gillard since. At the 2010 federal election, he was re-elected and in the ensuing reshuffle appointed Special Minister of State (located in the Department of Finance and Deregulation) and Special Minister of State for the Public Service and Integrity in the Second Gillard Ministry. His latter role was restyled as Minister for the Public Service and Integrity following the December 2011 reshuffle with no apparent change in responsibility. In a reconfiguration of the Ministry in March 2013, Gray was elevated to the Cabinet and promoted as the Minister for Resources and Energy, the Minister for Tourism and the Minister for Small Business.

On 16 February 2016 he announced he would be retiring from parliament at the 2016 federal election.

Foreign worker EMAs

As a parliamentary secretary in the Gillard Government, Gray chaired a taskforce comprising employment and training agencies, unions and employers to examine ways of dealing with the expected shortage of workers on major resource projects. In July 2010, the National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce put recommendations to the Australian Government, including a proposed enterprise migration agreement (EMA). After consideration by the government, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen and the Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, announced on 25 May 2012, the first EMA for the planned $9.5bn Roy Hill iron ore mine, proposed by businesswoman Gina Rinehart. The announcement said more than 8000 workers would be required for the construction phase and to meet labour demand, the government would allow up to 1715 457 visas for overseas workers for the three-year construction phase. The day after the announcement Australian Workers Union secretary Paul Howes, who was a member of the original taskforce, declared it "sheer lunacy" and an "ideal Christmas present" for Gina Rinehart. Later, five Western Australian unions launched an advertising campaign against Gray in his marginal electorate of Brand, linking his support of the EMA policy and 26% youth unemployment rate in Kwinana/Rockingham, suburbs in Brand. The advertisements called for a protest outside Gray's electorate office on Saturday June 16. Unionists also attacked Gray personally and Prime Minister Gillard issued a statement of her support for Gray, published in The Australian on 2 June,in which she described him as a "valuable member of the Government" who was a "dedicated, hard-working and effective minister". Later, the WA unions cancelled their planned "community protest". Despite the PM's support, opposition leader, Tony Abbott claimed "We have a prime minister who is not prepared to defend one of her most capable ministers," and went on to criticise the involvement of the unions in the Labor Party, referring to them as 'the faceless men'.