Leader Andrew Barr Nationality Australian Spouse(s) Lyndelle Ramsay | Preceded by Simon Corbell Political party Australian Labor Party Party Australian Labor Party | |
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Occupation Uniting Church minister Profiles | ||
Gordon Ramsay (born 1964) is a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory, representing the Ginninderra electorate. He was elected to be a Minister in the Barr government.
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Ramsay has also been a Minister of the Uniting Church in Australia, and earlier a lawyer in New South Wales.
Early life
Ramsay was raised in the southern Sydney suburb of Banksia, and attended primary schools at Rockdale and Hurstville before Sydney Boys' High School. He studied law at the University of Sydney graduating with a degree of Bachelor of Arts LLB (Hons), and then was admitted as a solicitor.
Uniting Church
Ramsay felt called to Christian ministry, and undertook the selection processes of the Uniting Church before being accepted for training at the Uniting Church Centre for Ministry in Sydney. He first served at Kingsgrove/Bardwell Park UCA.
1997–2016
From 1997–2016, he was the Executive Minister at Kippax Uniting Church in the north-western suburbs of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. This untypically long period of ministry in one church was characterised by his evolution as a spokesperson and organiser for social justice. The major speech at his end-of-ministry ceremony on 3 April 2016 was given by Lin Hatfield Dodds. He technically remains a Minister of the UCA, in a similar way that Hon. Brian Howe remained a UCA Minister while serving in the Parliament of Australia.
During this period, he worked in the ACT Anti Poverty Week, ACT Council of Social Services, and was a member of the ACT Community Inclusion Board and a Community Inclusion Advocate. He was a Community Champion for the 2020 Time To Talk movement, and a member of the ACT Better Services Taskforce. In 2012, Ramsay led the ACT Targeted Assistance Strategy.
He was recognised in 2014 as a finalist in the Act Local Hero category of the Australian of the Year awards.
He served on the Board of UnitingCare NSW-ACT (later "Uniting") from 2011, and chaired the Board from 2014–2016.
2016 election
Ramsay announced his candidacy for the Australian Labor Party in the Australian Capital Territory general election, 2016, for the Ginninderra electorate. His election material highlighted Our Gordon Ramsay and used visual metaphors from the other (chef) Gordon Ramsay.
He was initially indicated to be the third Labor candidate in the five member electorate. Ramsay finished the count 722 votes ahead of Greens candidate Indra Esguerra, and was thus a recipient of a distribution from her in the last round.
Ministry
At the first Labor Caucus meeting, on 24 October 2016, Ramsay was elected to the new seven-member Cabinet.
Ramsay's ministerial responsibilities were announced on the first sitting day of the Assembly, 31 October 2016, as: