Senator The Honourable
Sue Lines
Lines in 2017
President of the Australian Senate
Assumed office
26 July 2022
DeputyAndrew McLachlan
Preceded bySlade Brockman
Senator for Western Australia
Assumed office
15 May 2013
Preceded byChris Evans
Deputy President of the Australian Senate
In office
30 September 2016 – 26 July 2022
PresidentStephen Parry
Scott Ryan
Slade Brockman
Preceded byGavin Marshall
Succeeded byAndrew McLachlan
Personal details
Born (1953-12-15) 15 December 1953
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Political partyLabor
Alma materMurdoch University
OccupationTrade union official
Websitewww.senatorsuelines.com

Susan Lines (born 15 December 1953) is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for Western Australia since 2013, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the current President of the Australian Senate, having previously been Deputy President of the Senate from 2016. Before entering politics she was the assistant national secretary of United Voice.

Early life

Lines was born in Perth on 15 December 1953,[1] the daughter of Nancy McRae and Jim Lines. Her parents later separated and she became close to her stepmother Mary Davies. Her father was born in England and came to Australia at the age of 12 as part of a child migration scheme, initially living at Fairbridge Farm. He served in World War II and later worked as a baker, carpenter and builder.[2] Lines held British citizenship by descent until renouncing it prior to the 2013 election. Her maternal grandparents were Scottish.[3]

Lines attended Gosnells Primary School and Armadale Senior High School.[4][5] She completed a Bachelor of Education at Murdoch University and worked as a teacher from 1984 to 1985.[1] Her mother, who died in 1976, was also a schoolteacher.[2] In 1987, after a few years as a community organiser, Lines began working as a union organiser for what subsequently became United Voice. She became the assistant state secretary of the union in 2001 and assistant national secretary in 2007.[1]

Politics

Lines was elected to the state executive of the ALP in Western Australia in 1990 and the national executive in 2002. She was a delegate to national conference and a delegate to state conference in both Western Australia and New South Wales at various points. She served on the ALP's national policy committee from 2007 to 2009.[1]

Senate

In 2013, Lines was nominated by the ALP to fill a casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Chris Evans, another former United Voice official. At the time of her endorsement she was living in Sydney.[6] She was formally appointed to the Senate on 15 May 2013 and elected to a six-year term in her own right at the 2016 federal election.[1]

Lines has served on a number of Senate committees. She was elected Deputy President of the Senate in September 2016 in succession to Gavin Marshall.[1] She is the third woman to hold the position, after Margaret Reid and Sue West. In 2018, as chair of the Senate's procedure committee, she led an inquiry into the use of the Lord's Prayer to open parliamentary sittings which recommended that the practice should continue.[7]

In July 2022, following the ALP's victory at the 2022 federal election, Lines was elected President of the Senate in succession to Slade Brockman. She is the second woman elected to the position, after Margaret Reid, and the first woman from the ALP to be elected president.[8]

Political positions

Lines is a member of the Labor Left faction.[9]

Lines opposes the use of mandatory immigration detention. In 2014, she stated that immigration minister Scott Morrison had "blood on his hands" following the death of Reza Barati at the Manus Regional Processing Centre.[10] In the same year she was reportedly reprimanded by opposition leader Bill Shorten after stating that government announcements on Islamic State were "a shield to try and deflect from the awful mess they're in with their budget".[11] In 2016 she was one of four Labor MPs to publicly call for all detainees on Manus Island to be settled in Australia, in opposition to existing party policy.[12]

In 2019, Lines told the launch of the WA Labor Friends of Palestine that the Israel lobby is "powerful within the party and outside of the party" and was influencing ALP policy on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In response, Alexander Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry accused her of "play[ing] to people's fears and prejudices" and making "dog-whistle allusions to supposed Israel lobby influence over Australian politics".[13]

Lines supports shifting the date of Australia Day from 26 January. In January 2021 she stated that it "celebrates white supremacy and the legacy of colonisation that is directly linked to the various ways we continue to fail First Nations people".[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Senator Sue Lines". Senators and Members of the Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 "First speech". Hansard. Parliament of Australia. 26 June 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  3. ↑ Citizenship Register – 45th Parliament
  4. ↑ "Election of Senator" (PDF). Hansard. Parliament of Western Australia. 15 May 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  5. ↑ Taylor, Paige (12 March 2013). "Post-mortem intensifies reform demands". The Australian. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  6. ↑ Maumill, Bob (10 February 2013). "Discontent over deal to place union officials on ALP ticket". WAtoday. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  7. ↑ "Lord's Prayer to continue in Senate". 13 September 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  8. ↑ Giannini, Dominic (26 July 2022). "Second woman for Senate's highest office". Crikey. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  9. ↑ Coorey, Phillip (29 August 2016). "Queensland MPs query election post-mortem panel contender". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  10. ↑ Kerin, John; Wiggins, Jenny (24 February 2014). "Morrison resists pressure to say more on Manus Island death". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  11. ↑ "Security above politics: Bill Shorten counsels Labor senator Sue Lines". The Australian. 28 August 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  12. ↑ Massola, James (28 April 2016). "'This is a sick game and it needs to end': Labor splits over asylum seekers". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  13. ↑ Hondros, Nathan (11 April 2019). "WA Labor senator slams influence of 'Israel lobby' on party's Mid-East stance". WAtoday. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  14. ↑ Pascual Juanola, Marta (25 January 2021). "WA Labor senator under fire for claiming Australia Day 'celebrates white supremacy'". WAtoday. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
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