- Glenn Sterle
Glenn Sterle (born
January 3 ,1960 ) is anAustralia n politician. A former trade union organiser, he has been anAustralian Labor Party member of theAustralian Senate since2005 , representing the state ofWestern Australia .Sterle was born in
Melbourne , but was raised in the Perth suburb of Langford. He attendedThornlie Senior High School , but dropped out at the age of 17 to work as a furniture removalist. Three years later, he founded his own business operating road trains throughout northernWestern Australia and theNorthern Territory . He spent fourteen years working as an owner-operator before giving up his business to take on a position as an organiser with theTransport Workers Union in1991 . As well as working as an organiser, Sterle served on his local branch committee, and was ultimately elected to the union's federal council in1998 , remaining in all three positions until his election to the Senate in 2004. His time with the union included a brief stint as acting state secretary in1998 and an integral role in a major airline strike in the state in2000 . It was also during this period that Sterle received theCentenary Medal , in2003 , for services to training in the transport industry.Sterle's involvement with the union prompted him to join the
Australian Labor Party in1991 , and in1999 , he was elected as a delegate to the party's state conference. He served as the ALP's transport policy convener in2000 , and was a delegate to the party's national conference in2002 and2004 . He subsequently decided to make a bid to enter parliament, and in the leadup to the 2004 federal election, challenged the preselection of veteran Senator and former Cabinet minister Peter Cook. Cook was determined to remain in parliament, but withdrew from the ballot of their shared Centre Faction when it became clear that Sterle had achieved enough support to win. As a result, Sterle gained the second position on the party's Senate ticket and was easily elected to parliament. As with many newly elected Senators, Sterle has tended to be a fairly low-profile figure since taking his seat on1 July 2005 , although he has been sharply critical of the Howard government's industrial relations changes and attempts to limit parliamentary scrutiny of government actions.
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