Shayne Kenneth Neumann (born 26 August 1961) is an Australian politician. He was elected to the Federal seat of

Blair Blair is a Scots-English-language name of Scottish Gaelic origin. The surname is derived from any of the numerous places in Scotland called ''Blair'', derived from the Scottish Gaelic ''blàr'', meaning "plain", "meadow" or " field", frequently ...

in November 2007, and re-elected in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

and

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

. In March 2013, Shayne was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General and Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing. After the 2013 Federal election, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs and for Ageing. In 2016, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. After the 2019 Federal election, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel.

Early life

Neumann was born in

Ipswich, Queensland Ipswich () is an urban centre within the City of Ipswich in South East Queensland, Australia. Situated on the Bremer River (Queensland), Bremer River, it is approximately 40 km (25 mi) west of the Brisbane central business district. Ipswich is ...

. Neither of his parents completed high school; his father was a meatworker and his mother was a shop assistant. In his maiden speech, he stated: "In my childhood, I was exposed to the twin evils of addiction to alcohol and gambling. I lived through the poverty caused thereby and the pain of the divorce which followed." Neumann attended Ipswich East State Primary School and Bundamba State Secondary College. His first job was as a cleaner at a meatworks in Dinmore. He completed a Bachelors of Arts majoring in government and economics, and a Bachelor of Laws from the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

. Shayne was a partner in the

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 ...

-based law firm of Neumann and Turnour Lawyers, which he established at the age of 26 in partnership with Matthew Turnour (brother of former Federal MP Jim Turnour). He specialised in

family law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriag ...

Political career

Neumann has cited the rise of

Pauline Hanson Pauline Lee Hanson (''née'' Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the founder and leader of One Nation, a right-wing populist political party. Hanson has represented Queensland in the Australian S ...

in his home town of Ipswich as his motivation for becoming more involved in politics. Neumann was the Labor candidate for Blair at the 2004 federal election, and was heavily defeated by sitting Liberal member Cameron Thompson who received 61.21 percent of the

two-party-preferred vote In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP), is the result of an opinion poll or a projection of an election result where preferences are distributed to one of the two major parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal/Nati ...

. Blair was considered a Liberal

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing h ...

at the time. Neumann sought a rematch in 2007. This time, he was aided by two factors. Firstly, a redistribution of the electoral boundaries, finalised in 2006, pushed Blair further into

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

while cutting out the conservative-leaning rural towns of Esk and

Kingaroy Kingaroy () is a rural town and suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is situated on the Road Junction, junction of the D'Aguilar Highway, D'Aguilar and the Bunya Highway, Buny ...

, roughly halving Thompson's majority and putting Blair just outside the range of seats that Labor would have needed to win government. Secondly, there was a big Labor resurgence across the country at the 2007 federal election under the leadership of

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 ...

. This resurgence was at its greatest in Rudd's home state of

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 ...

. Neumann won the seat on a swing of 10.17 points. Neumann was re-elected in

with only a modest swing against him. He was re-elected in

, actually picking up a small swing in his favour as Labor lost government. In

, Neumann technically made Blair a safe Labor seat by taking 58.88 percent of the two-party vote. Neumann supported Rudd in the Australian Labor Party leadership spill on 26 June 2013. He stated that "it was a really tough decision because I thought it was in the best interests of our state and of the people in my electorate." In Labor's October 2013 leadership spill, Neumann supported

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 ...

. Following the ALP's defeat at the 2013 federal election, Neumann served as a shadow minister under opposition leaders

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 ...

, including as a member of Shorten's shadow cabinet from 2013 to 2019. He held the shadow portfolios of Indigenous affairs (2013–2016), ageing (2013–2016), Northern Australia (2016), immigration and border protection (2016–2019), and veterans' affairs and defence personnel (2019–2022). However, he was not included in the Albanese ministry after the ALP won the 2022 election.

Political positions

Neumann is a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. He has been described as part 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 ...

, and as such he was opposed to

same sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 billion people (20% ...

until late 2015. Neumann had publicly stated his opposition to same sex marriage in August 2011, August 2013, and June 2015. In December 2015, Neumann confirmed his newfound support of same sex marriage. In August 2016, Neumann said he was against the proposed plebiscite on same sex marriage. Neumann has been against pushes to repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. He said the laws protect

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognise ...

, but also protect against racial hatred.

Electoral history

References

External links

Shayne Neumann MP

Parliamentary biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neumann, Shayne Kenneth 1961 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Blair Members of the Australian House of Representatives Australian Christians People from Ipswich, Queensland 20th-century Australian lawyers University of Queensland alumni Australian MPs 2007–2010 Australian MPs 2010–2013 Australian MPs 2013–2016 Australian MPs 2016–2019 Australian MPs 2019–2022 Australian MPs 2022–2025