Michael Craig Berkman (born 13 March 1981) is an Australian politician and the member for Maiwar in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

's inner-west. Berkman has been the member for Maiwar since the

2017 Queensland state election The 2017 Queensland state election was held on 25 November 2017 to elect all 93 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, the unicameral Parliament of Queensland. The first-term incumbent Labor government, led by Premier Annastac ...

s, when he became the first Greens member to be elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembl ...

. He is the first member for Maiwar, after the electorate was created from the merger of the former

Indooroopilly Indooroopilly is a riverside suburb 7km west of the Brisbane CBD, Queensland, Australia. In the , Indooroopilly had a population of 12,242 people. Geography Indooroopilly is bounded to the south and south-east by the median of the Brisbane Ri ...

and Mt Coot-tha electorates.

Early life

Berkman was born in Brisbane, Queensland. His father worked in the media and his mother had trained as a secondary school teacher. He grew up in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 ...

, Queensland after the family moved there when Michael was 3 years old. Berkman attended Wilsonton State School and Toowoomba State High School. Berkman first attended the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = ...

to commence a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

before moving to

Griffith University Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. Formally founded in 1971, Griffith opened its doors in 1975, introducing Australia's first degrees in environmental science and Asia ...

, attending the Nathan campus, where he graduated in 2009 with a double degree,

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of ...

Early career

Berkman began his legal career as a

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

with Freehills in

, and spent some time working there following his graduation. He left legal practice to work in the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended f ...

's office of

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

until this group was made redundant following the election of the Newman Government in 2012. Berkman then accepted a position with the Environmental Defenders Office in Brisbane. In this role, he was involved in litigation with a particular specialisation in ground water in cases against Adani's

Carmichael Coal Mine The Carmichael coal mine is a coal mine in Queensland, Australia which produced its first shipment of coal in December 2021. The mine has drawn criticism for its environmental impacts on the Great Barrier Reef, water usage and carbon emissio ...

, the Alpha Coal Mine, and the New Acland Coal Mine Stage 3 Expansion. Berkman has also been involved in the not-for-profit sector, having previously worked with Millen Farms.

Political career

Berkman's political career began in the

2015 Queensland state election The 2015 Queensland state election was held on 31 January 2015 to elect all 89 members of the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The centre-right Liberal National Party (LNP), led by Premier Campbell Newman, attempted to win a sec ...

where he ran for the Greens in Ferny Grove, achieving a primary vote of 12.11%. In 2016, Berkman ran in the local government elections for

Moreton Bay Region The Moreton Bay Region is a local government area in the north of the Brisbane metropolitan city in South East Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it replaced three established local government areas, the City of Redcliffe and the Shi ...

in District 10, and then against

Peter Dutton Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian politician who has been leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party since May 2022. He has represented the Queensland seat of Dickson in the House of Representatives sin ...

for the Dickson at the 2016 federal election. Berkman was the first Greens member to be elected to the

in the seat of Maiwar in Brisbane's inner-west. He achieved a 27.78% primary vote to defeat incumbent Scott Emerson in the

. This followed the removal of the

electorate at the 2017 state election to make way for the new seat of Maiwar which had a notional LNP margin of 3%. Prior to its abolition, the

electorate was briefly held by a Greens MP,

Ronan Lee Ronan Oliver Lee (born 4 January 1976) is an Irish Australian former politician and research fellow in the at . He was previously a visiting scholar at Queen Mary University of London's International State Crime Initiative. His research focuss ...

, after he defected from the

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 ...

in 2008 in the middle of a parliamentary term.

Political positions

Political donations

In 2018, Berkman introduced a private member's bill to ban all political donations from businesses to state and local government politicians, candidates and parties, excluding charities and employee or employer organisations. Berkman said the community overwhelmingly supported reform to get big money out of politics. "People feel like Labor and the LNP are just not listening to them, and it's not hard to see why," Berkman said. "This is just more evidence that Labor and the LNP are completely wedded to their corporate donors." The Crime and Corruption Commission did not support the bill; however, Commissioner Alan MacSporran said it was his personal view that in an ideal world all donations would be banned.

Climate rally

In November 2018, Berkman said schools in Maiwar, Berkman's electorate, should allow students to attend climate change events during school hours. According to Berkman, all school principals agreed. The flagship rally took place on 30 November. Over 400 students attended, demanding climate action from the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...

and

Human rights and penal system

In 2018, Berkman called for investigations into Facebook comments from prison officers which advocated for extrajudicial violence against detainees. In 2021, he proposed a bill that would raise the age of the

age of criminal responsibility The age of criminal responsibility is the age below which a child is deemed incapable of having committed a criminal offence. In legal terms, it is referred to as a defence/defense of infancy, which is a form of defense known as an excuse so t ...

, which was defeated by four votes in 2022. Berkman has opposed youth crime bills that would override the Human Rights Act and make breach of bail by juvenile offenders a criminal offence. In March 2023, during the debate on the youth crime bill, he tabled claims of human rights abuses that had allegedly occurred at the Brisbane Watch House.

Personal life

Berkman is married with three children and lives in Bardon.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berkman, Michael 1981 births Living people Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Australian Greens members of the Parliament of Queensland 21st-century Australian politicians