Background
Iemma was born in Sydney, the only child of Giuseppe and Maria Iemma, migrants from Martone, Calabria, Italy. Maria Iemma worked in the clothing trade, and Giuseppe Iemma, a communist supporter in Italy, worked as a machine labourer. Morris joined the Australian Labor Party when he was 16. He was educated at state schools in Sydney, including the now-closed Narwee Boys' High School, and has an economics degree from the University of Sydney and a law degree from the University of Technology, Sydney.
In 1997 Iemma married Santina Raiti, with whom he has four young children.
Iemma is a member of the dominant right-wing faction of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party. From 1984 to 1986 he was an official with the Commonwealth Bank Employees Union. He then worked as an adviser to Senator Graham Richardson who held the environment and social security portfolios in the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating federal governments.
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