Michael Sukkar

Michael Sven Sukkar (born 11 September 1981) is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since September 2013, representing the Division of Deakin in Victoria for the Liberal Party.^[1] He served as the Assistant Minister to the Treasurer between 24 January 2017^[2] and August 2018, when he returned to the backbench after resigning^[3].

Early life and background

Michael Sukkar was born in Ringwood, Victoria. His father was a Lebanese migrant; his mother's father was a Norwegian migrant. Sukkar grew up in Ringwood and attended primary school at Sacred Heart in Croydon and then secondary school at Aquinas College in Ringwood. He completed a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce at Deakin University in 2004 and Master of Laws at the University of Melbourne in 2010.^[4][5]

In 2008 Sukkar suffered a cardiac arrest while playing basketball, and was saved by a nurse and anaesthetist who were at the game and an off-duty paramedic who was nearby.^[6]

Sukkar married Anna Duthie in 2010.^[7]

Preparliamentary career

In 2005 Sukkar worked as a Senior Consultant with accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers where he specialised in taxation. From 2006 Sukkar spent seven years working as a tax lawyer with the firm Ashurst Australia (then known as Blake Dawson Waldron), where he was a Senior Associate.^[5]

Parliamentary career

The seat of Deakin was held by the Liberal Party from 1984-2007 but was lost by Phil Barresi to Labor's Mike Symon in 2007. In 2012, Sukkar was endorsed as the Liberal Party candidate for the seat of Deakin. He won Deakin, then the second most marginal seat in Australia, at the 2013 election with a swing to the Liberal Party of 3.8%.^[8]

At the 2016 federal election, Sukkar increased his margin by 2.5% and had the Liberal Party's best result in Victoria.^[9]

In his maiden speech, Sukkar declared "strength in our local community is not achieved through government mandate, regulation or handouts, but from the principles of looking after your neighbour and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you."^[5]

In 2014 Sukkar help launch the Deakin 200 Club alongside other right-aligned federal MPs to fundraise for Deakin and other marginal conservative seats. The Age reported that the club obscured its donors; "Despite its fundraising activities, the club has never lodged a disclosure as a so-called "associated entity" of a political party, unlike similar clubs run by candidates and their supporters."^[10]

On 24 January 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appointed Sukkar to the Ministry as Assistant Minister to the Treasurer.^[2] Sukkar has previously served on a number of parliamentary committees, including being the Chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.^[5]

Prime Minister Turnbull gave Mr Sukkar responsibility for addressing housing affordability.^[11] On 20 February 2017, Sukkar told Sky News that "We're also enabling young people to get highly paid jobs which is the first step to buying a house, it's not the only answer but it's the first step".^[12] Labor MP Tim Watts said in response that the remarks showed the Coalition was “back to where Joe Hockey started on housing affordability”. ^[13]

In June 2017 Sukkar, Greg Hunt, and Alan Tudge faced the possibility of being prosecuted for contempt of court after they made public statements criticising the sentencing decisions of two senior judges while the government was awaiting their ruling on a related appeal.^[14][15] They avoided prosecution by, eventually, making an unconditional apology to the Victorian Court of Appeal.^[16][17][18] Conviction could have resulted in their expulsion from the parliament under Constitution s 44(ii) and, as a result, the government losing its one-seat majority in the House of Representatives.

Sukkar supported Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton during the Liberal leadership spill in August 2018, and had a "pivotal role" in removing then Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, which has led to Sukkar's support in his electorate falling to 47% of the two-party-preferred vote in an opinion poll.^[19] Under the new ministry of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Mr Sukkar has not been returned to the ministry and remains on the backbench.

Political views

In his maiden speech, Sukkar categorised himself as an "economic liberal", with "strong conservative foundations". He credited his Catholic faith as being one of the two most significant influences in his life, with family being the other.^[5] Sukkar opposes same-sex marriage. He stated that he will abide by the outcome of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey and believes all politicians should be held to it.^{[20][21][22][23]} Despite this, after his electorate voted 66% in favour of marriage equality^[24], Sukkar abstained from the vote, saying that he could not support the unamended bill.^[25] In 2013 he expressed support for the school chaplaincy program at an Australian Christian Lobby forum.^[26]

References