Peter Dutton, the Minister for Defence, and Brendan O'Connor, the Shadow Minister for Defence, will make their 2022 Defence Debate address to the National Press Club of Australia. This is a MEMBER and CORPORATE PARTNER ONLY event.
Peter Dutton is the Member for Dickson and Minister for Defence.
Minister Dutton was sworn in as the Minister for Defence on 30 March 2021.
Peter has been a member of the National Security Committee of Cabinet for 6 years. He is also a member of the Expenditure Review Committee and the Prime Minister’s leadership team.
Previously, he served as the inaugural Home Affairs Minister in its modern form from December 2017, with responsibility for the Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.
Peter has also previously served as the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection from December 2014 until August 2018 overseeing Operation Sovereign Borders – stopping the boats, getting every child out of detention, closing the Manus Regional Processing Centre and overseeing the special intake of 12,000 refugees from the Syria and Iraq conflicts.
Prior to that appointment, Peter was Minister for Health and Minister for Sport from September 2013 establishing the $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund.
Peter is married to Kirilly and is the proud father of Rebecca, Harry and Tom and lives in Dayboro in the Dickson electorate.
First elected to the Australian Parliament as the Member for Dickson in November 2001 at age 30, Peter became one of the youngest Ministers since Federation when appointed to the Ministry by Prime Minister John Howard in 2004.
In January 2006, he was promoted to Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer.
Whilst in Opposition between 2008 and 2013, Peter served as Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation and Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing.
Before his election to Parliament, Peter was a successful small businessman and employed a staff of 40.
Peter also served as a Queensland Police Officer for a decade and worked in the National Crime Authority and Drug and Sex Offenders’ Squads.
Brendan O'Connor is the Federal Member for Gorton and the Shadow Minister for Defence.
He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2001 as the Member for Burke.
At the 2004 federal election, Brendan was elected to the newly created electoral division of Gorton. He was re-elected at the 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 elections.
Brendan has served as Deputy Chair of the Public Works Committee and the Employment and Workplace Participation Committee. From January 2006 he chaired Labor's Industrial Relations Taskforce enquiring into the Howard Government's controversial Work Choices legislation.
Brendan served as the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations from December 2006 until the election of the Rudd Government, when he was appointed as Minister for Employment Participation. In a June 2009 reshuffle, Brendan became Minister for Home Affairs.
Following the 2010 federal election, Julia Gillard added the further responsibilities of Privacy and Freedom of Information to his portfolio. In December 2011, Brendan was appointed as the Minister for Human Services and Minister Assisting for School Education - a position he held for just over two months before a further reshuffle in early March 2012 saw Brendan enter Cabinet as Minister for Small Business and Minister for Housing and Homelessness.
In February 2013, Brendan was appointed the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and in June 2013 was appointed the Minister for Employment, Skills and Training.
After the 2013 Federal Election, Brendan was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations.
After the 2019 Federal election, Brendan was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Employment and Industry, Science and Small and Family Business. After a shadow cabinet reshuffle in January 2021, Brendan was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Defence.
Prior to entering Parliament, Brendan was a Union official from 1986 to 2001, most recently Assistant National Secretary of the Australian Services Union from 1993 to 2001.
Brendan holds a BA and a LLB from Monash University, and a Diploma, Harvard Trade Union Program, Harvard University.
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