Jenny Macklin

Jennifer Louise Macklin (born 29 December 1953) is an Australian former politician.

Macklin was born in Brisbane on 29 December 1953.

Her father was an engineer.

She grew up in country Victoria, initially in Cohuna where she attended the local primary school.

In 1966 the family moved to Wangaratta where she attended Wangaratta High School, also spending a year as an exchange student in Japan on a Rotary Scholarship.

Macklin went on to the University of Melbourne, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.).

From 1976 to 1978, Macklin worked as a researcher at the Australian National University (ANU) under accounting and finance professor Russell Matthews.

She then joined the Parliamentary Library as an economics specialist within the Legislative Research Service.

She was a member of a Canberra discussion group, the Red Fems, which presented a paper to the Women and Labour Conference in 1980.

Her work on energy pricing in the aluminium industry came to the attention of Victorian Labor MP Brian Howe, and in 1981 he recruited her to join the Labor Resource Centre in Melbourne as a research coordinator.

From 1985 to 1988, Macklin served as an adviser to David White, the state health minister.

In 1990, Macklin's mentor Brian Howe was appointed Minister for Health in the Hawke government.

She was subsequently appointed as the director of the government's National Health Strategy (NHS) initiative, tasked with reviewing Australia's existing health system.

She delivered a series of background papers and issues papers, one of which proposed the abolition of private health insurance.

The NHS body was disbanded in 1993 following a one-year extension of its initial two-year term.

Macklin then served as director of the Australian Urban and Regional Development Review from 1993 to 1995.

In 1994, Macklin won ALP preselection for the Division of Jagajaga, defeating former Casey MP Peter Steedman.

She was elected to federal parliament at the 1996 federal election and served as the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2001 to 2006, under opposition leaders Simon Crean, Mark Latham and Kim Beazley.

Macklin was elected to parliament at the 1996 federal election, which saw the defeat of the ALP government.

She was immediately elected a member of the shadow ministry, where she served in a number of roles, including Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Social Security and the Status of Women.

After the 1998 election, Macklin became Shadow Minister for Health.

She is a member of the Socialist Left faction of the Labor Party.

After the ALP's defeat at the 2001 election, Macklin was elected unopposed as deputy leader to Simon Crean.

She was the first woman to hold a leadership position in either Australian major party.

She took on the position of Shadow Minister for Education.

Macklin remained Deputy Leader after Crean's replacement as leader by Mark Latham in December 2003, and also under Kim Beazley following Latham's resignation in January 2005.

Macklin became the first person to be deputy to three leaders of the ALP since Frank Forde.

On 1 December 2006, Macklin's position as deputy leader of the ALP came under threat after Kim Beazley called for a spill of all the leadership positions, in a bid to end growing speculation over the issue.

Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Kevin Rudd, and Shadow Minister for Health, Julia Gillard, announced their intentions to run against Beazley and Macklin as a team for the positions of leader and deputy leader respectively of the party.

On the day of the ballot, Macklin effectively stepped down from the position, choosing not to contest the deputy leadership after Kevin Rudd was elected as the new party leader.

Macklin was once again elected to the Shadow frontbench, and was appointed Shadow Minister for Families and Community Services and Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation.

After the ALP won government at the 2007 election, she held ministerial office under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, serving as Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (2007–2013) and Minister for Disability Reform (2011–2013).

She maintained these portfolios in government after Labor's victory in the 2007 election.

In 2007, Macklin became the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

In this capacity she oversaw the passage and implementation of Australia's first national Paid Parental Leave Scheme, the Closing the Gap framework to address the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, a historic rise in the pensions and a number of other significant changes to social policy and family support payments.

Macklin was instrumental in the Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples, delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in February 2008 and the implementation of the Close the Gap Framework, the first comprehensive strategy for tackling Indigenous disadvantage in Australia's history.

In 2011, Macklin was given the additional responsibility of Minister for Disability Reform, overseeing the design and implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Macklin was also a member of the Government's Expenditure Review Committee and Chair of the Government's Social Policy Committee.

Macklin was Minister for Indigenous Affairs throughout the Labor government's two terms in office.

She retired from parliament at the 2019 election.