Scott Michael Ryan (born 12 May 1973) is an Australian politician and diplomat who was the 26th
high commissioner of Australia to Canada. A member of the
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia (LP) is the prominent centre-right political party in Australia. It is considered one of the two major parties in Australian politics, the other being the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The Liberal Party was fo ...
, Ryan served as
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...
for
Victoria from 2008 to 2021 and as
president of the Australian Senate
The president of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of Australia. The counterpart in the lower house is the speaker of the House of Representatives. The office of the presidency of ...
from 2017 to 2021, having previously been a minister in the
Turnbull government
The Turnbull government was the federal executive government of Australia led by the 29th prime minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, from 2015 to 2018. It succeeded the Abbott government, which brought the Coalition to power at the 2013 Au ...
from 2016 to 2017.
Early life
Ryan was born on 12 May 1973, in
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
,
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
.
He grew up in ,
Victoria. He was educated at
St Kevin's College, Melbourne,
and graduated from the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...
, with a Bachelor of Arts.
While at university, he served as president of the Melbourne University Liberal Club and was a member of the
Australian Liberal Students' Federation, of which he is a life member.
Ryan was a tutor in political science at the University of Melbourne from 1998 to 1999. He then worked as a speechwriter and staffer in the office of the Victorian opposition leader
Denis Napthine.
[ From 2002 to 2007 he worked in corporate affairs for pharmaceutical company ]GlaxoSmithKline
GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a Mergers an ...
. He was a research fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a conservative non-profit free market public policy think tank,
Political links and networking
The IPA Victoria was founded during World War II by businessmen in response to the feared growing power of ...
from 2007 to 2008.[
]
Politics
Ryan was a member of the executive of the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party, holding the office of vice president. He was elected to a six-year Senate term at the 2007 federal election, commencing on 1 July 2008. He was preselected in the third position on the Coalition
A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces.
Formation
According to ''A G ...
ticket in Victoria. He was re-elected to a second six-year term at the 2013 election, which was cut short by a double dissolution
A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissolutio ...
. Ryan was re-elected at the 2016 Australian federal election
The 2016 Australian federal election was a double dissolution election held on Saturday, 2 July 2016, to elect all 226 members of the 45th Parliament of Australia, 45th Parliament of Australia, after an extended eight-week official campaign p ...
.
The first sitting of the 2016–2019 Senate allocated which senators were elected for only three years and which received a full six-year term, and there was debate over which of two methods should be used to decide this. As a consequence of the method chosen, Ryan was one of the two senators (the other being Labor's Deborah O'Neill) who received a six-year term, when they would have had a three-year term under the alternative method.
Government minister
Following the 2013 federal election that resulted in the formation of the Abbott Ministry, Ryan was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education; later expanded as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training. Ryan served as the Minister for Vocational Education and Skills following a rearrangement in the First Turnbull Ministry, between February and July 2016. In March 2016, he stated his opposition to a federal takeover of vocational education from the states. Ryan was appointed the Special Minister for State in the first arrangement of the Second Turnbull ministry and gained additional responsibilities as the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cabinet in a subsequent rearrangement.
Ryan took extended leave for medical reasons in July 2017, following an illness that required admission to intensive care.
President of the Senate
On 13 November 2017, Ryan was elected President of the Senate
President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the Speaker (politics), speaker in some other assemblies.
The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's Order of succession, succes ...
, winning by 53 votes to 11 for Senator Peter Whish-Wilson
Peter Stuart Whish-Wilson (born 24 February 1968) is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for Tasmania since 2012, representing the Australian Greens. Formerly a lecturer in economics at the University of Tasmania, Whish-Wilson was a ...
of the Greens. He resigned his ministerial posts to take up the position. His predecessor Stephen Parry resigned from the Senate during the parliamentary eligibility crisis, after discovering he was a dual citizen of the United Kingdom. Ryan is the first former government minister to become President of the Senate since Doug McClelland
Douglas McClelland (born 5 August 1926) is an Australian former politician who served as a Senator for New South Wales from 1962 to 1987, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He was Minister for the Media (1972–1975) and Special ...
(1983–1987), and the first person to resign from the ministry to take up the position. He took office at the age of 44, surpassing Kerry Sibraa (who was 49) as the youngest person to assume the presidency.
Ryan stated that he would continue to sit in the Liberal party room during his presidency but would not participate in debate. Following the 2019 election, he was re-elected to the presidency on 2 July 2019. According to the 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 ...
, he was "well regarded on both sides of the chamber". In August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, he criticised the quarantine regimes of the state and territory governments as an infringement on the rights of parliamentarians.
In March 2020, Ryan announced he would retire from federal parliament at the 2022 federal election, citing his unwillingness to serve another six-year term and that "constant renewal is essential for every political party". He initially committed to remaining as president until the end of his Senate term in 2022, but on 24 September 2021 announced his intention to resign from the Senate before parliament sat on 18 October 2021.[ He officially resigned on 13 October 2021.][
]
High Commissioner
On 20 December 2021, Senator and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne
Marise Ann Payne (born 29 July 1964) is an Australian politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1997 until 2023, representing the Liberal Party. She held senior ministerial office in Coalition governments between 2013 and 2022, inclu ...
announced Ryan's appointment as High Commissioner to Canada to succeed Natasha Smith.
Political positions
Ryan described himself in 2018 as "very liberal in my political outlook" but with a conservative disposition. He was aligned with the faction in the Victorian Liberals associated with Peter Costello
Peter Howard Costello (born 14 August 1957) is an Australian businessman, lawyer and former politician who served as the treasurer of Australia in Howard government, government of John Howard from 1996 to 2007. He is the longest-serving trea ...
and Michael Kroger. After the Liberal candidate Dave Sharma was defeated by Independent Kerryn Phelps
Kerryn Lyndel Phelps (born 14 December 1957) is an Australian medical practitioner, public health and civil rights advocate, medical educator and former politician.
She was the first woman and first openly LGBT person to be elected president o ...
at the 2018 Wentworth by-election, he called for the party to maintain its ideological diversity.[
]
Personal life
Ryan has two sons with his wife Helen and lives in Melbourne.
References
External links
Parliamentary info page
Summary of parliamentary voting for Senator Scott Ryan on TheyVoteForYou.org.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Scott
1973 births
Living people
People from Essendon, Victoria
Politicians from Brisbane
Politicians from Melbourne
People educated at St Kevin's College, Melbourne
University of Melbourne alumni
Academic staff of the University of Melbourne
High commissioners of Australia to Canada
Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia
Members of the Australian Senate for Victoria
Presidents of the Australian Senate
Abbott government
Turnbull government
21st-century Australian politicians