Justin Eric Hanson (born 21 October 1980) is an Australian politician who was appointed to the

South Australian Legislative Council The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the South Australian House of Assembly, H ...

for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party on 28 February 2017.

Early life and education

Justin Hanson grew up and went to school in the western suburbs of Adelaide, later studying at Christian Brothers College. He obtained Law and Arts degrees from the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

Career

Hanson was elected as a councillor in the

City of Tea Tree Gully The City of Tea Tree Gully is a local council in the Australian state of South Australia, in the outer north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide. The major business district in the city is at Modbury, where Westfield Tea Tree Plaza, Modbury Hospital, ...

in Balmoral Ward. He was a Director on the Board of Statewide Superannuation and served as the Legal Officer of the

Australian Workers Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 members. Acc ...

. He was also a board member and chair at the not-for-profit Neil Sachse Foundation.

Political career

Gerry Kandelaars Gerard Anthony (Gerry) Kandelaars is an Australian politician. He was appointed to the South Australian Legislative Council for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party on 13 September 2011 to replace outgoing member Paul Hol ...

resigned from parliament on 17 February 2017, which created a casual vacancy and subsequent appointment. Hanson filled the vacancy.Unions elect AWU’s Justin Hanson as Labor’s new Upper House MP: The Advertiser 16 February 2017
/ref> Hanson was selected at number 2 on the voting ticket of the Labor Party in the 2018 State Election. A new electoral system applied for the 2018 Legislative Council election, abolishing group voting tickets and allowing voters to express their own preferences for parties above the line. Electoral analyst Antony Green speculated that this had the effect that "Party control over preferences was ended". At the 2018 State election Labor polled 304,229 Legislative Council votes and Hanson was subsequently re-elected to the Legislative Council as a member fifth overall from eleven members elected, and of 43 candidates that year. Justin Hanson has been elected for an eight-year term until the 2026 election. Hanson received 5.8% or 741 first preference votes of the 12,666 "below the line" votes cast for the Labor party in the 2018 election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanson, Justin Living people Members of the South Australian Legislative Council Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia Place of birth missing (living people) Labor Right politicians 21st-century Australian politicians Australian trade unionists Australian republicans Australian solicitors University of Adelaide alumni 1980 births