Michael Danby

He was Chair of the Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade throughout the 42nd Parliament, and was again chosen for this position in the 43rd parliament.

He was also Chair of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for the United States, and the Parliamentary Group for Tibet.

Michael David Danby (born 16 February 1955) is an Australian politician who was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1998 until 2019, representing the Division of Melbourne Ports, Victoria.

Danby also gave a speech at the celebrations for The Dalai Lama's 74th birthday entitled 'Let freedom reign in Tibet'.

The Chinese Government reacted angrily to the delegation's visit, saying the visit constituted interference in China's internal affairs.

From 1979 to 1983 Danby was manager of Halmaag Art Galleries in Malvern.

From 1980 to 1983 he was an Australian Army Reserve officer cadet with Officer Cadet Training Unit, 3 Training Group, based at Albert Park Reserve and Puckapunyal.

He was Assistant Private Secretary to Barry Cohen, a minister in the Hawke government 1983–84, and Editor of the Australia-Israel Review (published by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council) from 1986 to 1993.

In 1985 he was senior vice-president of the International Youth Conference in Kingston, Jamaica.

In 1990 Danby ran as the Labor candidate for the safe Liberal seat of Goldstein against Dr David Kemp.

He was a ministerial adviser to Alan Griffiths, the Industry Minister in the Keating government, 1993–94.

He was an industrial officer with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association 1994–96.

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, defeating Tim Pallas, who would later become the Victorian State Treasurer.

He was elected in 1998 with 55 percent of the vote, and was reelected with slightly reduced majorities in 2001 and 2004.

Danby was a member of the Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters from 1998 until 2010, and was Deputy Chair in 2006.

He used this position to run a campaign against the Howard Government's changes to Australian electoral law, which he argued restricted the ability of voters, particularly new voters, to enrol and vote.

Danby was the only Jewish member of the Australian Parliament from 1998 to 2007, when Mark Dreyfus, also from the Labor Party, was elected.

In an article in 2005, he wrote: "For 150 years Australia has been a world leader in progressive electoral reform... As a result Australia has one of the most open and accessible electoral systems in the world, and also a system with the highest reputation for integrity and transparency. Now, for the first time in living memory, an Australian government is going to wind the process back, for no good reason other than its own partisan advantage. They are going to make it more difficult for Australians to enrol and to vote."

In 2005 Danby was critical of a book by a Sydney Jewish atheist 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 on the book's publisher, Melbourne University Press, to "drop this whole disgusting project."

He also called on the Jewish community to boycott the book.

In 2007 he gained a 3% two-candidate-preferred (TCP) swing to Labor and in 2010 secured a further 1% TCP swing.

From 2008 to 2010 Danby was Chair of the Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Migration.

In 2008 and 2009 the Migration Committee completed three major reports.

These reports made numerous recommendations in relation to Australia's immigration detention system, several of which of were adopted by the Australian Government, including the recommendation that 'detention debt' should be abolished.

Danby gained some media attention in late 2009 following his criticism of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's use of the term 'illegal immigrants' rather than 'asylum seekers'.

Regarding use of the term 'illegal immigrants' he stated "I don't find these sort of populist expressions helpful in this debate."

In July 2009 in his role as Chair of the Parliamentary Group for Tibet, Danby led the first-ever delegation of Australian MPs and Senators to Dharamshala, India, the base of the Central Tibetan Administration.

The group met with Dalai Lama, and other senior lamas, as well as numerous government Ministers.

Danby was outspoken in his criticism of the Labor Party's handling of the 2010 election, attacking the heavily-Western Sydney focus of the campaign.

Soon after the 2010 Federal Election Danby drew attention to the fact that for various reasons 1.4 million eligible Australians had not voted, and criticised the Government for not having acted during its previous term to ensure greater voter turn-out.

This was followed in 2010 with the election of Josh Frydenberg who is a Liberal.

He has frequently spoken in support of Israel.

Danby supports a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine question.

From July 2011 to March 2013 Danby was Chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, a role which saw him represent the Prime Minister at the inauguration of the new nation of South Sudan in 2011.

In May 2011 he said: "I am a strong supporter of Israel. Obviously also a strong supporter of a peace process there and a two-state solution, and I have that dialogue with a friends from Israel when I get the opportunity to.

Danby was briefly Parliamentary Secretary for the Arts, from March to September 2013.

Danby was born in Melbourne and lives in Elwood.

Danby attended Mount Scopus Memorial College and then enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University but left without completing the degree.

He was President of the Melbourne University Student Union as well as President of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students.