Geoffrey Lee (born ) is an Australian politician. He has served as the Minister for Corrections in the

Perrottet ministry The Second Perrottet ministry or Second Perrottet–Toole ministry is the 99th ministry of the Government of New South Wales, and is led by Dominic Perrottet, the state's 46th Premier. The Liberal–National coalition ministry was formed on 2 ...

since December 2021. He has previously served as the Minister for Skills and Tertiary Education in the second Berejiklian and Perrottet ministries between April 2019 and December 2021. Lee is also a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

representing

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a l ...

since 2011.

Early years and background

Geoff Lee was born in 1967 and has an

Anglo-Celtic Australian Anglo-Celtic Australians is an ancestral grouping of Australians whose ancestors originate wholly or partially in the British Isles - predominantly in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. While Anglo-Celtic Australians do not form an officia ...

and

Chinese Australian Chinese Australians () are Australians of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Chinese diaspora, and are the largest Asian Australian community. Per capita, Australia has more people of Chines ...

background. He attained a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in horticulture from the University of Western Sydney – Hawkesbury and was managing director of Hambledon Garden Centre, a garden centre and landscaping business in

from 1992 until 2001. He completed his

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accou ...

from

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third univer ...

's School of Business Administration in 2001 and commenced teaching part-time at

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

. From 2004 to 2006, Lee was a lecturer in business at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) and, during this time, completed a Doctor of Business Administration degree at the

Macquarie Graduate School of Management Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) is a graduate school of management established in 1969, associated with Macquarie University, Australia. MGSM has campuses in North Ryde (located on Macquarie University campus), Sydney's CBD and H ...

. In 2007, he was appointed Associate Dean (Engagement) at UWS.

Political career

At the March 2011 elections, Lee was elected as member for Parramatta and received a swing of 25.8 points in the traditionally strong

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 ...

seat. Going into the election, Labor held Parramatta with a majority of 13.1 points. As a measure of the size of the massive Coalition wave that swept New South Wales that year, Lee picked up a swing large enough to turn Parramatta from a very safe Labor seat into a very safe Liberal seat in one stroke. He later said that could not have won—and certainly not with as large a swing—without winning over dozens of people who had never voted for a Liberal before. He was re-elected in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, becoming the first non-Labor member since the 1950 state election to have held the seat for more than one term. Prior to the 2019 NSW state election in May, Lee served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier, Western Sydney and Multiculturalism from 1 Feb 2017 to 23 Mar 2019. Following the 2019 state election, Lee was appointed as the Minister for Skills and Tertiary Education in the second Berejiklian ministry, with effect from 2 April 2019. Amid an Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into former sports minister

John Sidoti Anthony John Sidoti is an independent Australian politician who was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Drummoyne since 2011. He was a member of the Liberal Party, but moved to the crossbench as an independent in ...

in September 2019, Lee was appointed Acting Minister for Sport, Multiculturalism, Seniors and Veterans until the preliminary investigation concluded. Sidoti later resigned from Cabinet in March 2021 and "Lee will continue to act in those portfolios until I determine a replacement in the near future," according the NSW Premier

Gladys Berejiklian Gladys Berejiklian (born 22 September 1970) is an Australian former politician who served as the 45th premier of New South Wales and the leader of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party from 2017 to 2021. Berejiklian became a member ...

. Following the October 2021 election of

Dominic Perrottet Dominic Francis Perrottet ( ; born 21 September 1982) is an Australian politician who is currently serving as the 46th premier of New South Wales and leader of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party of Australia. He assumed office ...

as Leader of the NSW Liberal Party and his appointment as Premier, Perrottet reshuffled the ministry with effect from December 2021, where Lee was appointed as Minister for Corrections.

References

External links

Lee's campaign webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Geoff 1960s births Living people Australian horticulturists Australian people of Chinese descent Australian people of English descent Australian people of Scottish descent Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Macquarie University alumni Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly People from Parramatta Western Sydney University alumni 21st-century Australian politicians