Jason Dean Clare (born 22 March 1972) is an Australian politician serving as Minister for Education since 1 June 2022. He is a member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

(ALP) and has represented the

Division of Blaxland The Division of Blaxland is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. Blaxland runs from the M4 motorway line in the north to Marion Street and the Bankstown railway line and M5 motorway in the south, between Woodvill ...

in Western Sydney since 2007. Clare has been a member of the shadow cabinet from 2013 to 2022, under opposition leaders

Bill Shorten William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian former politician and trade unionist. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Leader of the Opposition (Australia), Leader of the Opposition from 2013 to 2019. He also ...

and

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been the Leaders of the Australian Labor Party#Leader, leader of the Labor Party si ...

. He was a government minister under

Julia Gillard Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as the ...

and

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June to September 2013. He held office as the Leaders of the Australian Labo ...

from 2010 to 2013, serving as Minister for Defence Materiel (2010–2011, 2012–2013),

Home Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a Ministry (government department), government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law e ...

(2011–2013),

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

(2011–2013), and

Cabinet Secretary A cabinet secretary is usually a senior official (typically a civil servant) who provides services and advice to a cabinet of ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powe ...

(2013). He returned to the ministry as Minister for Education after the ALP's victory in 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 Morrison government, Liberal–National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, soug ...

Early life and education

Clare was born on 22 March 1972 and raised in

Western Sydney Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that ...

. He attended

Cabramatta Cabramatta, also abbreviated as Cabra, is a suburb in South Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Cabramatta is located south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local gove ...

Public School and then Canley Vale High School, where he was dux in 1989. When he left school he joined the Labor Party and was the secretary of the Cabramatta Branch for 10 years (1992 to 2002). He completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

. He was a senior adviser to former NSW Premier

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the New South Wales Labor Party, New South Wales branch of the A ...

and an executive at

Transurban Transurban is an Australian, multinational road operations company and one of the world's largest toll road operators. Transurban, either independently or through financial consortiums, manage and develops urban toll road networks across Austr ...

, one of Australia's Top 100 companies.

Political career

Preselection

Clare ran for Labor preselection in the division of Blaxland in 2007, challenging the incumbent 11-year Labor MP Michael Hatton. Clare won preselection in May 2007, defeating Hatton. He also competed for preselection against George Williams, who had been "anointed by the ALP executive", had the "blessing of former Prime Minister

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being ...

" and whose chances had been "talked up" by ABC news reports. Clare retained Blaxland at the 2007 federal election, which saw Labor win government. Clare has been touted as a future ALP leader, but he has denied any interest in becoming leader, only wishing to reach the role of Minister for Education. He reached this aim on 1 June 2022.

Rudd–Gillard Governments (2007–2013)

Clare was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Employment in June 2009. Following the intra-party power struggle that saw

become Prime Minister, Clare was promoted into the Ministry and appointed Minister for Defence Materiel in September 2010. He retained Blaxland with a clear majority at the 2010 election. On 12 December 2011, Clare was appointed Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Justice and in the March 2012 reshuffle he again picked up the portfolio of Defence Materiel. On 4 February 2013, Clare replaced

Mark Dreyfus Mark Alfred Dreyfus (born 3 October 1956) is an Australian politician and lawyer. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), and has been the MP for Isaacs since the 2007 election. Dreyfus served as the attorney-general of Austral ...

, at the same time relinquishing the defence material portfolio. He retained the home affairs and justice portfolios through to the government's defeat at the 2013 federal election. However, on 1 July, following a

leadership spill In Australian politics, a leadership spill (or simply a spill) is a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for contest. A spill may involve all or some of the leadership positions (leader and deputy leader in ...

that saw Kevin Rudd return as prime minister, he was replaced as Cabinet Secretary by Alan Griffin. Clare was a member of Cabinet from 25 March to 1 July 2013.

Opposition (2013–2022)

Clare was a senior member of the shadow cabinet after Labor's defeat in 2013, under opposition leaders

and

. He served as Shadow Minister for Communications (2013–2016), Resources and Northern Australia (2016–2019), Trade and Investment (2016–2019), Regional Services, Territories and Local Government (2019–2022), and Housing and Homelessness (2019–2022).

Albanese Government (2022–present)

Clare became Minister for Education on 1 June 2022 in the new Albanese Cabinet. In January 2023, Clare commented on the ongoing case regarding Kanye West's visa application. Clare stated that he believed that West, who is commonly referred to as Ye, should have his visa denied for his praise of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

and his history of anti-semitic comments.

Political views

Following the 2013 election, Clare blamed the leadership tensions between Gillard and Rudd for the party's defeat, and stated it was time for "generational change" in the party's leadership. Clare is a member of the

Labor Right The Labor Right (LR), also known as Labor Forum, Labor Unity or simply Unity, is one of the two major political factions within the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It is nationally characterised by social democratic to Third Way economic policies ...

faction, and after Labor's defeat at the 2019 election initially supported Chris Bowen to replace Shorten as leader. However, Bowen later withdrew from the race, allowing Albanese (a member of the Left faction) to win election unopposed. Clare supports same-sex marriage, despite his electorate recording 73.9% "No" responses, the highest in the

Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was a national survey by the Australian Government designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. The survey was held via the Australia Post, postal service between 12 Septe ...

of 2017. In December 2023, Saint Ursula's College, Kingsgrove ended its ban on same-sex partners for LGBT+ students attending the school formal after Clare urged the Catholic school to “show a little bit of common sense”, saying “You should be able to take whoever you want to the Year 12 farewell.” A Change.org student petition against St Ursula's “discriminatory policy” had reached 4,900 signatures.’Sydney Catholic school scraps same-sex formal ban following backlash’
3 November 2023. ''

Guardian Australia ''Guardian Australia'' is the Australian website of the British global online and print newspaper, ''The Guardian''. Available solely in an Online newspaper, online format, the newspaper's launch was led by Katharine Viner in time for the 201 ...

''.

Australian Associated Press Australian Associated Press Ltd (AAP) is an Australian news agency. It was founded in 1935 by Keith Murdoch. AAP employs around 90 journalists who work in bureaus in all states and territories of Australia except the Northern Territory. It al ...

References

External links

Parliament of Australia profile
*
Profile at TheyVoteForYou.org.au
, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Clare, Jason 1972 births Albanese government Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Australian MPs 2007–2010 Australian MPs 2010–2013 Australian MPs 2013–2016 Australian MPs 2016–2019 Australian MPs 2019–2022 Australian MPs 2022–2025 Australian MPs 2025–2028 Labor Right politicians Living people Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Blaxland Members of the Cabinet of Australia Ministers for education of Australia Ministers for justice of Australia Politicians from Sydney University of New South Wales Law School alumni