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Australian politician
Patrick Martin Conroy
(born 10 May 1979) is an Australian politician. He is a member of the
Australian Labor Party
(ALP) and the Labor Left faction and has been a member of the
House of Representatives
since 2013. He represented the
Division of Charlton
in New South Wales until its abolition in 2016, and since then has represented the
Division of Shortland
. He is currently the
Minister for Defence Industry
and
Minister for International Development and the Pacific
.
[1]
Early life
[
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]
Conroy was born in
Sydney
,
[2]
however he moved to the Central Coast of New South Wales when he was one year old.
[
citation needed
]
His parents were "union delegates throughout their lives and long-time Labor activists".
[3]
He was born a British citizen by descent through his father, who was born in
Bishop Auckland
, County Durham, England. He renounced his dual citizenship before standing at the 2013 election in accordance with
section 44 of the constitution
.
[4]
Conroy attended Ettalong Public School and Gosford High School. Growing up he played for the Woy Woy Football Club and the Gosford Rugby Club.
[
citation needed
]
Conroy holds the degree of
Bachelor of Economics
(
Hons.
) from the
University of Sydney
. He joined the ALP in 1994 and served as a state and federal vice-president of
Australian Young Labor
from 2003 to 2004. Prior to entering parliament, he worked as an electorate officer for
Anthony Albanese
(2000), an industrial/policy officer with the
CFMEU
's forestry division (2000?2002), a policy adviser to
George Campbell
(2002?2004), national economist to the
Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union
(2004?2008), and as principal policy adviser (2008?2011) and deputy chief of staff (2011?2013) to
Greg Combet
.
[2]
Parliament
[
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]
Conroy was elected to parliament at the
2013 federal election
, retaining the
Division of Charlton
for the Labor Party following Greg Combet's retirement.
[3]
[5]
He transferred to the
Division of Shortland
at the
2016 election
, following Charlton's abolition. After the election he was appointed to
Bill Shorten
's
shadow ministry
as an assistant minister for the portfolios of infrastructure and climate change and energy. He retained his place in
Anthony Albanese
's
shadow ministry
after the
2019 election
, and was promoted to Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific as well as minister assisting in the portfolios of climate change, defence and government accountability.
[2]
Conroy is aligned with the ALP's
Socialist Left
faction,
[6]
[7]
and serves as one of the two federal parliamentary convenors of the
Labor Left
faction, along with
Andrew Giles
.
[8]
References
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]
External links
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]