Tony Burke

Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations

Tony Burke is the Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, the Shadow Minister for the Arts, and Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives. He was a minister in the Rudd, Gillard and Rudd governments from 2007 until 2013, responsible at different times for Agriculture, Sustainability and Environment, and Immigration.

A National President of Young Labor in the 1980s, he graduated with an Arts-Law degree from the University of Sydney and in the mid-90s he became a founding director of a small business. In 1997 he began working for one of Australia’s biggest unions, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association.

After a year in the NSW Legislative Council he entered Federal Parliament in 2004 and was immediately given a front-bench position by then leader Mark Latham as shadow minister for small business. He subsequently became Opposition immigration spokesman and entered Cabinet after Labor’s 2007 election victory.

As Manager of Opposition Business he is central to Labor’s parliamentary strategy and is at the forefront of its political assault on the coalition.