Tony Burke

Rudd and Gillard governments

Burke at a 2005 protest against the Howard Government's industrial relations policy

After the 2007 federal election, Burke was appointed Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in the new Rudd Government. He was sworn in by the Governor-General on 3 December 2007.^[4] Burke oversaw the abolition of the Australian bulk wheat export monopoly after the AWB oil-for-wheat scandal.^[8] He oversaw the eradication of the horse flu in Australia after the 2007 equine influenza outbreak.^[9]

On 2 April 2010, Rudd appointed Burke as Minister for Population.^[4] The appointment came after Rudd stated he was in favour of a "big Australia" in response to demographic projections in the Government's Intergenerational Report showing the population of Australia would increase from 22 million in 2010 to 35 million in 2050.^[10] Burke’s responsibilities included planning for the growth in Australia’s population and coordinating the provision of services accordingly.

Following the 2010 federal election, Burke was appointed Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. In March 2012, following the ALP leadership spill, Burke was also appointed Vice-President of the Executive Council.^[4]

As Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Burke established the Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network, the largest network of marine protected areas anywhere in the World and the world’s second largest conservation determination after the preservation of Antarctica.^[11]

Burke acted as a mediator in the long-running dispute between environmental groups and the Tasmanian forestry industry, culminating in the signing of the historic Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement in 2011.^[12]

Burke often cites Labor’s environmental credentials and the campaign to protect the Daintree Rainforest as the reason he got involved in politics.^[5] In government, Burke pushed to protect large areas of the Tasmanian Wilderness and the Ningaloo Reef by having them listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 2014, the Abbott Government’s application to undo Burke’s Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage listing was rejected by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.^[13] The Portuguese delegation called the delisting attempt “feeble”.^[13]

In early 2011, Burke gave approval for the 100 per cent plantation timber Bell Bay Pulp Mill in the Tamar Valley after imposing stricter environmental conditions on the applicant Gunns Limited.^[14] Burke said many of the demands made by environmental groups opposed to the development had been addressed.^[15]

Burke in a 2014 protest against the Abbott Government's proposed changes to section 18(c) of the Racial Discrimination Act

On 22 November 2012, Burke signed off on the Murray Darling Basin Plan, a process more than 100 years in the making, after extensive consultation with irrigators, environmental groups and state governments.^[16]

On 25 March 2013, Burke was appointed Minister for the Arts in the Second Gillard Ministry, in addition to his existing responsibilities.^[4] Burke took over the implementation of the Gillard Government’s Creative Australia policy after the former Minister for the Arts, Simon Crean, was sacked for his involvement in a failed attempt to return Kevin Rudd to the prime ministership.^[17] Following the June 2013 Labor leadership spill, which saw Gillard lose the Labor leadership, Rudd rejected Burke’s offer to resign from the ministry.^[18] Burke, a Gillard supporter, had been critical of Rudd's performance during his previous tenure.^[18] Rudd subsequently appointed Burke as Minister for Immigration, Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship in the Second Rudd Ministry. He remained Minister for the Arts and Vice-President of the Executive Council.^[4]

Opposition (2013–present)

Following Labor’s 2013 election loss, Burke was appointed Shadow Finance Minister and Manager of Opposition Business.^[4] From opposition Burke has been a vocal opponent of the Liberal National Government’s fiscal and economic policies, and its attempts to repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.^[19][20] In May 2014, Burke held a march against the changes to Section 18C in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba. The event was attended by more than 1,000 people protesting against the changes, which were subsequently dropped by the Abbott Government.^[19]

The “Walk for Respect” was held again in 2017 in Lakemba when the Turnbull Government again sought to remove certain protections against speech potentially considered to be racially offensive. The Walk was held on the same day the senate rejected the government amendments, this time with 3000 in attendance.

After the 2016 federal election, Burke was appointed Shadow Minister for Environment and Water, Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Australia, Shadow Minister for the Arts and Manager of Opposition Business.^[4]

Euthanasia

Burke is opposed to the legalisation of assisted suicide. He has said his opposition stems from the case of a friend who was incorrectly diagnosed with a terminal illness.^[21] In the 1990s, Burke served as the executive director of Euthanasia No!, a group that lobbied state and federal governments against altering the status quo on euthanasia. In 1996, he and a pro-euthanasia campaigner, Peter Baume, were invited to address the New South Wales Legislative Assembly prior to a debate on the subject, one of only a handful of occasions on which non-MPs have been invited to speak in parliament.^[22][23] He was later tasked with lobbying Labor senators to vote for what became the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997, which voided the Northern Territory's euthanasia laws.^[24][25]

Same-sex marriage

Burke publicly announced his support of same-sex marriage in May 2015,^[26] and voted in favour of the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017.^[27] He had previously voted against the Marriage Amendment Bill 2012, citing opposition within his constituency.^[28] His division had the second-highest percentage of "No" responses in the 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, with 69.64% of the electorate's respondents to the survey responding "No".^[29]

Lobbying for hate preacher

“Labor frontbencher Tony Burke sought a business visa for an Islamic scholar and hate preacher who was denied entry into Australia ... Mohammed Rateb Abdalah Ali al-Nabulsi was eventually denied entry to Australia, despite the opposition frontbencher's efforts in July last year, The Australian reported on Wednesday. The Voice of Islam radio station had invited Mr Nabulsi to Australia for a series of public engagements and sought the help of Mr Burke to secure his visa.” ^[30]

Mr Nabulsi appeared on Al-Aqsa TV -- the official Hamas-run television channel -- on April 28, 2011 and said among other things: “Homosexuality leads to the destruction of the homosexual. That is why, brothers, homosexuality carries the death penalty. .... We are extremely lucky in our countries. When the head of the [Islamic] community in Australia came to bid me farewell at the airport, he began to cry, and said: ‘Tell our brothers in Syria that the garbage heaps of Syria are better than the gardens of Australia.’” ^[31]