Steve Irons

Steve Irons
MP
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Swan
Assumed office
24 November 2007
Preceded by Kim Wilkie
Majority 3.56%
Personal details
Born Stephen James Irons
(1958-09-01) 1 September 1958
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nationality Australian
Political party Liberal Party of Australia
Spouse(s)
Cheryle Irons (m. 2011)
Children Jarrad Irons
Website www.steveirons.com.au

Stephen James Irons (born 1 September 1958) is an Australian politician.[1] He is the Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the electoral Division of Swan in Western Australia since the 2007 Federal Election. Irons was a former ward of the state, the only parliamentarian to be so.

Early life

Irons was raised in the Melbourne suburb of Blackburn. Irons was the 6th child of 10 in the Dix family as was six months old he was placed into an orphanage in Camberwell. Steve was then adopted at age three by the Irons family who had recently migrated from South Africa. Steve Irons' adoptive father was a local church minister in Melbourne, and his mother worked as a social worker at a hospital. Irons has nine biological siblings. He completed an apprenticeship as an electrician after high school in Melbourne.

Irons moved to Perth in 1981 to play Australian Rules Football for East Perth in the West Australian Football League. He began working at an air conditioning company located in Welshpool, while playing for East Perth. In 1996, he became the owner of the company.

Parliamentary career

Irons was the sole Liberal in Australia to unseat a sitting Labor MP at the 2007 election, defeating Kim Wilkie by 164 votes.[2] However, the federal election came at a bad time for the state Labor government, which was only polling at 49 percent at the time the federal writs were issued. Indeed, Western Australia was the only state to record a swing to the Coalition in an election which Labor won decisively.

Since his election in 2007, Irons has sat on many Parliamentary Committees, listed below:[3]

House of Representatives Standing Committees

  • Communications from 11/3/2008 to 4/6/2009;
  • Education and Training from 11/3/2008 to 19/7/2010;
  • Publications from 11/3/2008 to 5/8/2013;
  • Health and Ageing from 10/11/2008 to 5/8/2013;
  • Health from 4/12/2013 to 9/5/2016 (Chair from 11/2/2014 to 9/5/2016);
  • Procedure from 25/10/2010 to 5/8/2013 and Procedure from 14/9/2016
  • Tax and Revenue from 19/10/2015 to 9/5/2016.

Joint Standing Committees

  • Parliamentary Library from 4/12/2013 to 9/5/2016;
  • National Disability Insurance Scheme from 19/3/2014 to 12/10/2015;
  • Corporations and Financial Services from 14/9/2016 (Chair from 14/9/2016);
  • Public Accounts and Audit from 14/9/2016 to 10/8/2017.

Joint Select Committees

  • Constitutional Recognition of Local Government from 26/11/2012 to 13/3/2013.

Joint Statutory Committees

  • Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity from 12/2/2015 to 9/5/2016;
  • Human Rights from 14/9/2016.

Irons has also been a member of the Speaker's panel since 2015.

Issues

In his maiden speech to Parliament, Irons noted that he wanted a national focus on the forgotten Australians and former child migrants, and on forced adoption.[4] He worked with both sides of the house in the national apology to Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants on 16 November 2009,[5] and on the National Apology for forced adoptions.[6]

Irons was among the first to call for a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse.[7]

Personal life

His son Jarrad Irons played Australian rules football for Port Adelaide in the Australian Football League.

On 21 October 2011, Irons married Cheryle Street, then a Melbourne-based real estate agent.[8]

In October 2015, Irons pleaded guilty to a case of driving whilst intoxicated. He was served with a good behaviour order.[9]

In 2016, a story emerged that Irons charged his wedding flight to the taxpayers in 2011. It is stated that he paid this back in a self audit within two weeks in 2011 as the charging was clearly a mistake.[10][11]

References

  1. ↑ Steve Irons: Parliament of Australia website Archived 23 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ Commission, Australian Electoral. "House of Representatives Division First Preferences". results.aec.gov.au. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  3. ↑ 7111;, corporateName=Commonwealth Parliament; address=Parliament House, Canberra, ACT, 2600; contact=+61 2 6277. "Mr Steve Irons MP". www.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  4. ↑ "ParlInfo - GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S SPEECH : Address-in-Reply". parlinfo.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  5. ↑ "Forgotten Australians: Apology". forgottenaustralianshistory.gov.au. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  6. ↑ AGD. "National Apology for Forced Adoptions". www.ag.gov.au. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  7. ↑ "ParlInfo - Federation Chamber : CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS : Forgotten Australians". parlinfo.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  8. ↑ Scanlan, Shane. "Wow Cheryle | Docklands News". www.docklandsnews.com.au. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  9. ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-16/federal-mp-steve-irons-pleads-guilty-to-drink-driving/6860314
  10. ↑ McIlroy, Tom (26 September 2016). "WA Liberal MP Steve Irons used taxpayer funds to attend his own wedding in Melbourne". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 26 September 2016.
  11. ↑ Butterly, Nick (26 September 2016). "WA Liberal MP Steve Irons put wedding flight on expenses". The West Australian. Archived from the original on 26 September 2016.
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by
Kim Wilkie		 Member for Swan
2007–present		 Incumbent
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.