Michael Steven Knight (born 21 September 1952 in ,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

) is a former

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 ...

politician. He was member for Campbelltown in 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 ...

between 1981 and 2001. He served as

Minister for the Olympics The Minister for the Olympics was a position within the United Kingdom Government created on 6 July 2005 as a result of the selection of London to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. It was merged into the position of Secretary of State for Culture, O ...

between 1995 and 2001 in the Carr

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 ...

government.

Background and early career

Knight attended Doonside High School and Cranbrook School. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(Honours) from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

and worked for the Campbelltown City Council as a social planner and parole officer before entering politics.

Political career

Knight entered the

at the 1981 election succeeding

Cliff Mallam Heathcote Clifford Mallam (4 December 1909 – 18 February 2006) was an Australian politician and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly between 1953 and 1968 and between 1971 and 1981. He was a member of the Labor Party (ALP). ...

who had held the seat for ten years. Originally a member of the

leftwing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

faction, Knight defected to

rightwing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property, r ...

faction after a trip in Europe which convinced him that

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

had failed. Knight remained on the back bench until 1995 when he was appointed to the state

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

with ministerial responsibilities for Public Works and Services, the Olympics and Roads. His responsibilities were later in 1995 reduced to Roads and Olympics. In 1996 this was further reduced to responsibility for the Olympics, a portfolio he held until his retirement in 2001. As Minister for the Olympics he was Chair of the

Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

(SOCOG).

Post political career

In 2007, Knight was appointed to the chair of the Board of the

Sydney Olympic Park Authority Sydney Olympic Park is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, located 13 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Parramatta Council. It is commonly known as Olympic Park but officially na ...

, the body which manages the day-to-day running and future development of

Sydney Olympic Park Sydney Olympic Park is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, located 13 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the City of Parramatta, City of Parramatta Council. It i ...

. He was reappointed to the Board as its chairman in 2013, and his term expired in June 2016. Knight was a director of the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

– owned corporation,

Delta Electricity Delta Electricity is an electricity generation company in Australia. The company was formed by the Government of New South Wales in 1996 as part of its reform of the electricity sector in the State, which saw the breakup of the Electricity Comm ...

, until December 2010 when he was one of the four directors who resigned en masse in protest of the privatisation of the generating assets of the company. During 2005 he also served as chairman of Sydney Gas Limited, prior to its takeover by the

Australian Gas Light Company The Australian Gas Light Company (AGL) was an Australian gas and electricity retailer. It was formed in Sydney in 1837 and supplied town gas for the first public lighting of a street lamp in Sydney in 1841. AGL was the second company to list on ...

. He is also the non-executive chairman of InfraShore, a public-private partnership consortium between Thiess and

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland Public Limited Company () is a major retail banking, retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest and Ulster Bank. The Royal Bank of Sco ...

in charge of the billion-dollar redevelopment of

Royal North Shore Hospital The Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) is a major public teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia, located in the suburb of St Leonards. It serves as a teaching hospital for Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney, University of Technol ...

Honours

In January 2002, Knight was appointed an

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for services to: Olympic and Paralympic sport, particularly in the area of Games' administration; to the New South Wales Parliament; and, to the community of Campbelltown. In 2000, Knight was awarded a Gold

Olympic Order The Olympic Order, established in 1975, is the highest award of the Olympic Movement. It is awarded for particularly distinguished contributions to the Olympic Movement, i.e. recognition of efforts worthy of merit in the cause of sport. Tradit ...

by the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based in L ...

at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Personal

Knight is married to Anne, and they have two daughters. He is a keen supporter of

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers is an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West of Sydney and South Western Sydney. The Tigers have competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since being formed at the end of the 1999 N ...

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

team.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Michael 1952 births Living people Presidents of the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games Australian people of German descent Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Officers of the Order of Australia University of Sydney alumni People educated at Cranbrook School, Sydney Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Recipients of the Olympic Order 21st-century Australian politicians Ministers for customer service and digital government