Stephen James Irons (born 1 September 1958) is an Australian politician. He was the
Liberal member of the
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Austra ...
representing the electoral
Division of Swan
The Division of Swan is an Australian electoral division located in Western Australia.
Swan is a marginal electorate that has swung between both major political parties in the past two decades. It extends across the Swan River from central ...
in
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
from the
2007 federal election
This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...
to his retirement at the
2022 federal election.
Early life
Irons was raised in the
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...
suburb of
Box Hill North
Box Hill North is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 14 km east from Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Whitehorse local government area. Box Hill North recorded a population of 12,337 at the 2021 ce ...
. Irons was the sixth of ten children in the Dix family; and when he was six months old he was placed into an orphanage in
Camberwell. Irons was fostered at age three by the Irons family who had recently migrated from South Africa. Irons' foster father was a church minister in South Africa and a social worker within mostly State and Local Council organisations in Victoria, and his foster mother worked as a social worker within medical institutions and Charity organisations in Melbourne. Irons grew up with his foster family until moving to Perth. Irons completed an apprenticeship as an electrician after completing his high school education in Melbourne.
Irons moved to Perth in 1981 to play
Australian Rules Football for
East Perth
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...
in the
West Australian Football League
The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September ...
. He began working at an air conditioning company located in Lord St East Perth, while playing for East Perth. In 1996, he became the owner of the company.
Parliamentary career
Irons was the only Liberal in Australia to defeat a sitting
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
MP at the
2007 election, defeating
Kim Wilkie by a margin of 0.19 percent on a
two-party-preferred basis.
Since his election in 2007, Irons has sat on a large number of Parliamentary Committees and was a member of the Speaker's panel from 2015 until 2018.
Following the election of Scott Morrison as Liberal Leader and thus Prime Minister of Australia, Irons was elevated to the Ministry as Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister in August 2018.
While campaigning for the 2019 election, Irons was approached outside his electorate office and asked how many times he voted to cut penalty rates. Irons confronted the Unionists, who had allegedly sworn at his wife, saying that with regards to a bill that was introduced to Parliament for mandatory sentencing of convicted sex offenders that unlike the Labor party he did not vote for "paedophiles, sex offenders and rapists" against the bill.
Following the
2019 election, Irons was sworn in as the assistant minister for vocational education, training and apprenticeships.
Irons pulled out of the preselection process for the seat of Swan prior to the
2022 Australian federal election
The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth cons ...
. Sky News commentator Kristy McSweeney was endorsed as the Liberal party candidate for his seat, unopposed. The move by the Liberal party to not restart the preselection process when Irons pulled out was criticised by other preselection hopefuls, who would have run for preselection had Irons pulled out earlier.
Issues
Irons is a member of the centre-right faction of the Liberal Party.
In his maiden speech to Parliament, Irons noted that he wanted a national focus on the forgotten Australians and former child migrants, and on forced adoption. He worked with both sides of the house in the national apology to Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants on 16 November 2009, and on the National Apology for forced adoptions. Irons was among the first to call for a royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse. In 2018 Irons called for the introduction of the
death penalty for paedophiles and "people who continually abuse children".
Personal life
His son
Jarrad Irons played
Australian rules football for
Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...
in the
Australian Football League (AFL). However, Irons supports the
West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Footbal ...
in the AFL.
On 21 October 2011, Irons married Cheryle Street, then a Melbourne-based real estate agent.
In October 2015, Irons pleaded guilty to a case of driving with a blood alcohol reading of 0.069. He was served with a good behaviour order.
In December 2015, Irons billed the taxpayers for him to attend an amateur golf tournament at the
Gold Coast even though his electorate is in
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
. His wife also attended the tournament, which was also billed to the taxpayer to the value of around $4000. Irons denied any wrongdoing.
In 2016, 5 years after the event, the media revealed that Irons charged his wedding flight to the taxpayers in 2011. Irons paid the charge back in early 2013.
See also
*
Forgotten Australians
Forgotten Australians or care leavers are terms referring to the estimated 500,000 children (a figure that includes child migrants and Indigenous Australians) who experienced care in institutions or outside a home setting in Australia during the ...
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irons, Steve
1958 births
Australian rules footballers from Western Australia
East Perth Football Club players
Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia
Living people
Members of the Australian House of Representatives
Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Swan
21st-century Australian politicians
Morrison government
People educated at Blackburn High School
People from Box Hill, Victoria
Australian rules footballers from Melbourne