Vignettes of political life
Thousands of people have influenced and affected my political life in both Sri Lanka and Australia. The Sri Lankan influences were covered in the early chapters; here are vignettes in no particular order about those who populated the Victorian Parliament or were part of my various election campaigns.
Rob Hulls
Former Australian federal parliamentarian. Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 2012, representing the electorate of Niddrie. As well as serving as the Deputy Premier of Victoria, he held the posts of state attorney-general and Minister for Racing.
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Leslie Cannold
An American-born ethicist, educationalist, writer, activist and public intellectual was the national president of Australia’s pro-choice movement.
Dale Wilson
An Australian politician, and a former member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Narre Warren South. He was elected in 2002. He is a member of the Labor Party and a member of its Socialist Left faction.
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Johan Scheffer
A former member of the Victorian Legislative Council for the Labor Party who was appointed as the new chairperson of Sustainability Victoria for the next five years.
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John Brumby
Former Premier of Victoria (in office from 2007–2010) was a federal MP 1983–90 before being elected to state parliament and serving from 1993 to 2010. He is now chancellor of La Trobe University.
Ted Baillieu
A former Australian politician who was Premier of Victoria from 2010 to 2013. He was a Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1999 to 2014, representing the electorate of Hawthorn. He was elected leader of the Liberal Party in opposition in 2006, and served as Premier from 2010 until 2013 after winning the 2010 state election.
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Lily D’Ambrosio
An Australian politician and Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 2002, representing the electorate of Mill Park. She is presently Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change and Minister for Solar Homes in the Andrews Ministry.
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Murray Thompson
A former member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He was the member for Sandringham in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1992 until his retirement in 2018.
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Geoff Howard
An Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, representing Ballarat East from 1999 to 2014, and Buninyong from 2014 to 2018.
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Bruce Atkinson
An Australian politician. He has been a Liberal member of the Victorian Legislative Council since October 1992, representing Koonung Province from 1992 to 2006 and Eastern Metropolitan Region since. He was the President of the Legislative Council from 2010 to 2018.
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Joanne Duncan
An Australian politician. She was a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1999 to 2014, representing Macedon from 2002.
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Gary Sissons
Gary was a photographer with one of the three local weekly newspapers circulating in my electorate, the Cranbourne Independent. He later worked for Fairfax Community Network when it bought the Independent News Group in 2006.
Ryle Moldrich
Host of the ‘Chat with Ryle’ program on community radio station 3SER (now Casey Radio) broadcast from Cranbourne .
Marco Fedi
He emigrated to Australia in 1983, is an Italian politician representing Italians living abroad. in 2006 he was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies as an overseas candidate for the centre-left coalition.
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George Jayawardene
A Sri Lankan born businessman and close friend now residing in Melbourne, Victoria.
Sammy Argiriou
Senior electorate officer and office manager for 14 yeas during my time as MP for Cranbourne.
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