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Michael David Danby (born 16 February 1955), Australian politician, has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the Division of Melbourne Ports, Victoria. He was born in Melbourne, Victoria and was educated at Melbourne University. He was President of the Melbourne University Student Union as well as President of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students .
Danby was Assistant Private Secretary to Barry Cohen, a minister in the Hawke government 1983-84, Editor of the Australia-Israel Review 1986-93 and an Advisor to Alan Griffiths, a minister in the Keating government, 1993-94. He was an industrial officer with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association 1994-96.
In 1990, Danby ran as the Labor candidate for the safe Liberal seat of Goldstein against Dr David Kemp, who had defeated former Liberal minister Ian Macphee in a preselection challenge. Danby received a primary votes of 21,138 out of possible 70,821 formal votes (29.8%). On a two-party preferred basis, Danby had 31,145 primary votes out of 70,821 formal votes (44.0%).
In 1997 he won a hotly disputed Labor Party preselection battle for the right to contest Melbourne Ports, where the sitting member, Clyde Holding, was retiring. At the 1998 election he won the seat and has been re-elected, with slightly reduced majorities, in 2001 and 2004.
Danby has been an Opposition Whip since November 2001. He is currently the only Jewish member of the Australian Parliament and has frequently spoken in support of Israel and in opposition to antisemitism and other forms of racism.
Danby has sometimes been accused of being hostile to Muslims or to Islam. He countered this accusation in an article in the Australian Financial Review in November 2005. He was one of only three Labor MPs not to sign a letter to the US Congress demanding the release of David Hicks.
In 2005 Danby was critical of a forthcoming book by a Sydney journalist, Antony Loewenstein, about the Australian Jewish community and its attitudes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict . In a letter to the Australian Jewish News, Danby called in the book's publisher, Melbourne University Press, to "drop this whole disgusting project." he also called on the Jewish community to boycott the book. "I urge the Australian Jewish community, and particularly the Australian Jewish News, to treat it with dignified silence," he said.
Danby was one of several ALP members facing a preselection challenge in order to recontest his seat at the 2007 federal election. However, he defeated challenger Henk van Leeuwen, winning three-quarters of the local vote, thus retaining preselection.
Reference
- Joyce a lone hand on Hicks plea letter, Sydney Morning Herald, February 2, 2007
External links
- Personal homepage
- 1990 Victorian Federal Election Results (Hawke vs Peacock)
- National Security Must Come Before Politics (pdf)
- The battle for Melbourne Ports - Australian Jewish News
- Jewish candidates go head to head in Melbourne Ports - 7:30 Report
- Jewish candidates fight for Melbourne Ports seat - PM radio
- Back Pages
- The Fringe Dwellers - AIJAC Review
- The Young Lib, the green T-shirt and the how-to-vote card - The Age
- Jewish rivals battle for bagel belt - The Australian
- Australia Votes 2004 - Jewish Australia
- Close result predicted in Victoria - The Age
- Catch The Fire Ministries
- News and Views from Rosa and David Risstrom
- Melbourne Observer
- Melbourne Observer