Ged Kearney

Gerardine Mary "Ged" Kearney (born 29 October 1963) is an Australian politician and trade unionist who is the Labor member for the federal division of Cooper and the current assistant minister for health and aged care.

Kearney was born on 29 October 1963 in East Melbourne, and grew up in Richmond, as the second-youngest of nine children.

Her father was a publican.

Kearney attended secondary school at Academy of Mary Immaculate in Fitzroy.

She began to study for a Bachelor of Economics degree at Monash University, but dropped out to pursue a career in nursing.

She qualified as a registered nurse in 1985 and participated in the nurses' strike in 1986.

She also gained a Bachelor of Education, and worked as a nurse, and nurse educator, managing clinical nurse education at Austin Health.

When Kearney was 21, she became pregnant with twins, leading her to take leave from her nursing training.

She returned to her training when her children were 7 weeks old.

Kearney was elected as an official of the Australian Nursing Federation in 1997.

She served as assistant federal secretary, federal president, and Victorian branch president before she was appointed as federal secretary of the Federation in April 2008.

Prior to politics, Kearney served as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) from 2010 to 2018.

With the election of the Albanese government at the 2022 Australian federal election, Kearney was appointed assistant minister for health and aged care.

On 1 July 2010, following the departure of Sharan Burrow, Kearney was elected president of the ACTU.

At the time, the election process was criticised by the president of the Australian Workers' Union, Paul Howes, as being "undemocratic", because of the exclusion of right-wing aligned unions from the election process.

Kearney stated in response that she had received the support of "70% of unions" within the ACTU.

In December 2011, Kearney and other trade unionists were deported from Fiji, under the emergency laws put in place following the constitutional crisis of 2009.

In July 2012, Kearney announced that the ACTU would donate to Fiji A$2.6 million to assist in the running of democratic elections.

In April 2012, Kearney announced that the ACTU would suspend the membership of the Health Services Union, in the wake of the Health Services Union expenses affair.

Kearney described the scandal as "a bad look" for the union movement.

In the following month, Kearney addressed a conference of the ACTU where she stated that the "misuse of members' money and contempt for the accountability to members [is] unacceptable."

In July 2012, immigration minister Chris Bowen created the Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Migration (MACSM), and appointed Kearney as one of its nine members.

In May 2013, in the lead up to the 2013 federal election, Kearney indicated she was considering nominating for Labor preselection in the Division of Batman as the seat was being vacated following the retirement of Martin Ferguson.

Kearney eventually decided not to contest preselection.

In 2015, as ACTU president, Kearney called on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remove Dyson Heydon from leading the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, after Heydon agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraising dinner.

Kearney also stated that the ACTU was considering taking the matter to the High Court, although this did not eventuate.

Kearney had previously labelled the royal commission "an expensive stunt".

In 2017, Kearney resigned from the MACSM, stating that the body had become "ineffective" and "unbalanced".

In 2017, Kearney ran for Labor preselection in the Victorian seat of Brunswick; a seat vacated by Jane Garrett after she moved to the Legislative Council.

She has been a member of the House of Representatives since March 2018, first representing the division of Batman.

Cindy O'Connor was preselected as the Labor candidate over Kearney, and was subsequently defeated at the 2018 state election by Greens candidate, Tim Read.

In February 2018, a by-election was announced in the seat of Batman following the resignation of David Feeney due to the 2017–2018 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis.

Kearney was preselected by Labor to contest the by-election and on 2 February 2018, resigned as president of the ACTU to campaign.

Kearney's main opponent was Greens candidate Alex Bhathal, who had already run for the seat five times previously.

Controversy around the proposed Adani Carmichael coal mine was a significant feature of the by-election campaigning.

During the campaign, Labor leader Bill Shorten stated his "scepticism" of the coal mine, and Kearney also voiced criticisms of the project, but did not commit to blocking it.

The Australian Conservation Foundation distributed material stating that only the Greens would "stop Adani's mine from going ahead".

Activist group GetUp! also stated they would not assist Labor in campaigning, due to their position on the coal mine.

During the by-election campaign, Kearney received the personal endorsement of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

A letter written by Gillard was distributed to 36,000 houses within the electorate.