Political Career
On 18 October 2008 he was endorsed to be the Labor Party candidate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of former State Treasurer Michael Costa. He was subsequently appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council to fill that casual vacancy. Costa was Robertson’s predecessor at Unions NSW, and ironically, was one of the causes that led to Costa’s resignation due to blocking of the privatisation of the NSW power industry.
Shortly after his swearing in, former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating sent a scathing letter to Robertson stating that Keating was "ashamed to share membership of the same party" as him. Keating's view of Robertson was that his opposition to the privatisation bid would cost Labor dearly at the next State election.
Robertson won the seat of Blacktown in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly at the March 2011 election that resulted in Labor being heavily defeated. After Keneally announced she was standing down, Robertson was elected unopposed as leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition. His immediate task was rebuilding a party that had seen its caucus more than halved in the election held a week earlier—a result that Robertson said the party deserved, calling it "a devastating result, a message that was sent to us."
Read more about this topic: John Robertson (New South Wales Politician)
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)