Michael Feneley

Medical career

Feneley has been the Director of Cardiology at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, since 1993. Other positions include as Director, Heart Lung Program since 2004, Chairman, St Vincent's Medical Council 2003-2008, a board member of St Vincent's and Mater Health Sydney 2003-2008 and Director, Physician Training for over 5 years.

Feneley’s research altered the recommendations for the performance of manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and altered the management of patients with atrial fibrillation, the most common significant disturbance of heart rhythm.

Politics

Feneley stood as the Liberal Party candidate in the 2010 Australian federal election in the seat of Kingsford Smith. The seat has been held by Labor since it was created in 1949. He was defeated by the sitting Labor member and Environment Minister Peter Garrett, though he managed to slash eight points off the Labor margin, reducing it from a comfortably safe 63 percent to a marginal 55 percent--the first time the seat had been anything other than safe Labor in over four decades.

Seven months later Feneley stood as the Liberal candidate in the 2011 New South Wales state election in the seat of Maroubra. As was the case previously, the seat has been held by Labor since it was created in 1950. He was defeated by Labor's Michael Daley, but managed to slash the Labor majority from a previously comfortably safe 16.1 percent to a marginal 1.6 percent. Daley was one of only 20 successful Labor candidates. Feneley ran as the Liberal candidate for Kingsford Smith in the 2013 election. He was defeated by Garrett's replacement as Labor candidate, former Senator Matt Thistlethwaite--in the process, paring the Labor margin down to just 2.7 percent.

Having reduced a previously safe federal Labor seat and a previously safe state Labor seat to marginal seats, Feneley had to decide between whether to choose those Federal or State seats believing he had a good chance of winning either of them at the next respective elections. Feneley chose to recontest Kingsford Smith at the 2016 Federal election but was defeated in a rematch against Thistlewaite. This time, Thistlewaite picked up enough of a swing to revert Kingsford Smith to safe Labor.

Honours

On 11 June 2012, Feneley was named a Member of the Order of Australia for "service to medicine in the field of cardiology as a clinician, researcher and educator, through contributions to professional organisations, and to the community."

Personal life

Feneley is married to his second wife and has four children.

He served as president of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales Council, the Art Gallery of New South Wales membership organisation, from 2006 to 2010. Prior to this he served as vice-president from 2005 to 2006 and has been a member since 2002.

He has also served as Chair of the East Coast Theatre Company for several years.