Michael Organ

Michael Keith Organ
Federal Member for Cunningham
In office 19 October 2002 – 8 October 2004
Preceded by	Stephen Martin
Succeeded by	Sharon Bird
Constituency	Cunningham
Personal details
Born	22 September 1956 (1956-09-22) (age 55) Bulli, New South Wales
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Greens
Children	Andrew, Kyle, India, Emma
Occupation	Manager, Repository Services / Archivist
Website	[1]

Michael Keith Organ (born 22 September 1956) is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Greens member of the Australian House of Representatives between 2002 and 2004, representing the Division of Cunningham, New South Wales. He was the first member of the Greens to win a seat in the House of Representatives, having won a by-election which the Liberal Party did not contest.^[1]

Life and education

Organ was born in Bulli, New South Wales. His mother was a hospital domestic and his father was a brickworker.^[2] He studied geology at the University of Wollongong and completed a post-graduate diploma in archive administration at the University of New South Wales, where he subsequently took up a post as an archivist.^[2] He was archivist at the University of Wollongong between 1996–2002 and is currently employed as Manager, Repository Services there.^[3][4] Organ briefly worked at the brickworks where his father worked, interrupting his study to do so.^[2]

Organ was recruited to the Greens by Elizabeth Perey, a former Tasmanian Greens council candidate, several months before his election in 2002. He ran in the local government election for the lord mayoralship of Wollongong, 3 months prior to the Cunningham by-election.

He has four children, Andrew (b.1991), Kyle (b.1993), India (b.2008) and Emma (b.2011).^[2][3]

Electoral history

Cunningham by-election

Main article: Cunningham by-election, 2002

The federal division of Cunningham has been a safe Labor seat since its creation in 1949.^[5] On 16 August 2002, the sitting member, Dr. Stephen Martin, unexpectedly resigned, causing a by-election.

The ALP preselected a TAFE teacher, Sharon Bird, by selection of the party executive rather than the usual rank-and-file nomination procedure, and the Liberal party elected not to preselect a candidate for the by-election.

Organ was endorsed by the South Coast Labor Council and received strong preference flows from two popular independent candidates, David Moulds and Peter Wilson. He gained 23% of the primary vote and 52% after allocation of preferences, defeating Bird and becoming the first Green elected to the House of Representatives, at the same time making Cunningham a marginal seat.^[6]

During his term, he was one of only three federal Greens members of parliament (along with Senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle).

Subsequent elections

Organ was defeated by Bird at the subsequent 2004 general election.^[7]

He was preselected as the Greens candidate for Cunningham in the 2007 federal election, but failed to regain the seat from Bird.^[8]

He is currently running for the position of Lord Mayor with Wollongong City Council at the election to be held on 3 September 2011.^[9]

Political positions

Sandon Point

In his first speech, Organ credited his win to community opposition to a planned development by the Stockland Trust Group at Sandon Point.^[10] The campaign included a tent embassy by the local Kuradji nation, and a community blockade of around 300 people which was confronted by a force of around sixty police officers and police dogs.^[11] Organ said that the development was inappropriate, threatened European and Indigenous cultural heritage, threatened wetlands and a green corridor.^[10]

Economy

Organ supports free tertiary education and opposes the privatisation of public utilities like Telstra, as well as what he calls "two decades of Canberra's obsession with economic rationalism".^[10]

Iraq war

In his first speech, Organ condemned the Iraq War as unjust, in breach of United Nations resolutions, and likely to lead to higher risks of terrorism.^[10]

Tibet

Organ co-authored the Greens' policy on Tibet, which supports the right of Tibetans to self-determination and the Dalai Lama's Middle Way approach.^[12]

See also

• List of Australian Greens parliamentarians
• Cunningham by-election, 2002

References

1. ^ Cunningham By-Election, Adam Carr's election archive
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Meet Michael Organ, the boy from Bulli who brought a breath of fresh air to the Cunningham electorate, Canberra Times, 26 October 2002
3. ^ ^{a b} Michael Organ: About, official Greens page
4. ^ UoW Library Staff
5. ^ Cunningham electoral profile, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2004
6. ^ Cunningham (NSW) By-Election (19 October 2002) Results, Australian Electoral Commission, 2002
7. ^ House of Representatives 2004 - Cunningham, Australian Electoral Commission, 2002
8. ^ House of Representatives 2007 - Cunningham, Australian Electoral Commission, 2002
9. ^ [http://www.michaelorgan.org.au/council2011.htm Michael Organ for Lord Mayor website, 2011
10. ^ ^{a b c d} First speech, February 2003
11. ^ Save Sandon Point Community Website
12. ^ Australian Greens' policy on Tibet

External links

• Official parliamentary web site 2002-2004 (archived)
• Michael Organ personal web site
• Illawarra Greens

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Stephen Martin	Member for Cunningham 2002–2004	Succeeded by Sharon Bird

Persondata
Name	Organ, Michael Keith
Alternative names
Short description	Australian politician
Date of birth	22 September 1956
Place of birth	Bulli, New South Wales
Date of death
Place of death