Verity Helen Firth (born 28 August 1973) is an Australian university executive and former politician. She is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Justice and Inclusion) at the

University of Technology Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public university, public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1988, though its origins as a Institute of technology, ...

. She was the chief executive officer of the Public Education Foundation in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Firth served as a member of the

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 ...

Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Balmain for the Labor Party from

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. During this period, she served as Minister for Women, Minister for Science and Medical Research, and Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Cancer) from 2007 to 2008, Minister for Climate Change and the Environment in 2008, and as the Minister for Education and Training from 2008 to 2011.

Career

Firth became a member of the Labor Party at the age of 15. She studied at North Sydney Girls High between 1986 and 1991, before studying Arts/Law at 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 ...

between 1992 and 1998. While at university, she was active in student politics. After graduating, she worked as a political staffer, prior to working as an articled clerk at Slater & Gordon in 2001; she then worked as a campaign organiser for the Australian Labor Party (2001–2004). Between 2004 and 2007, she practised as a solicitor with

Slater & Gordon Slater & Gordon Lawyers is a law firm in Australia. The firm was founded in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1935 by a barrister and solicitor from Irymple, Victoria, Hugh Lyons Gordon, and Labor politician Bill Slater. Since April 2023, the law firm ...

, specialising in asbestos litigation and industrial law. Firth was elected as a

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

of the

City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the Local government in Australia, local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the Greater Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament ...

in 2004. During her tenure on Council, she served for a period as Deputy Lord Mayor. Prior to entering state politics, she served on the board of the Law and Justice Foundation and Aidwatch. Firth was elected to the new seat of Balmain on 24 March 2007. Though there was a swing away from the Labor, she won the seat with a majority of just below 4%. She was sworn in on 2 April 2007, receiving simultaneous appointment as Minister for Women, Minister for Science and Medical Research, Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Cancer) and Minister Assisting the Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water (Environment). On 22 February 2008, Phil Koperberg, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, resigned from cabinet due to ill health. Firth was subsequently appointed as Minister for Environment and Climate Change. Following the caucus election of

Nathan Rees Nathan Rees (; born 12 February 1968) is an Australian former politician who served as the 41st Premier of New South Wales and leader of the New South Wales Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009. Rees was a Member of the New South Wal ...

as Leader of the NSW Labor Party and Premier in September 2008 and ensuing New South Wales government reshuffle, Firth was appointed as Minister for Education and Training. She won early praise for her demand to the federal government that it fund state public schools to the same level as private schools. During her tenure as Education Minister, she was regarded as a future Labor leader. Firth retained the Education portfolio under Rees' successor,

Kristina Keneally Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an American-born Australian politician who served as the first female Premier of New South Wales from 2009 to 2011 and was later a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 u ...

. During early 2009, the then Rees Labor Government announced the CBD Metro project. Controversial from the start, the CBD Metro project dominated the Sydney news for much of the year. Firth received media coverage for her opposition to the CBD metro, in the event that it would mean a bus interchange at

Rozelle Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Location Rozelle s ...

(due to the

urban density Urban density is a concept used in urban planning, urban studies, and related fields to describe the intensity of people, jobs, housing units, total floor area of buildings, or some other measure of human occupation, activity, and development acro ...

of the area). Firth was also perceived as being at odds with economically conservative sections of the NSW Cabinet after her opposition to the privatisation of

Sydney Ferries Sydney Ferries is the public transport ferry network serving the city of Sydney, New South Wales. Services operate on Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour and the connecting Parramatta River. The network is controlled by the New South Wales Government ...

became public; at the time, the option of privatising Sydney's ferry fleet was examined by the NSW government against the opposition of unions and some residents. The Keneally government subsequently announced that the ferries would not be privatised. Firth was defeated by

Jamie Parker Jamie Parker (born 14 August 1979) is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Harry Potter in the original cast for the West End play '' Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'', for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award ...

(representing the

NSW Greens The Greens NSW, also known as the NSW Greens, is a green political party in New South Wales and a member of the Australian Greens. First formed in 1991, the Greens NSW began as a state-level party before joining with other green parties in Austr ...

) as the Member for Balmain at the 2011 state election. After her defeat, Firth considered returning to work as a solicitor. Instead, however, she was appointed as CEO of the Public Education Foundation, an advocacy organisation providing scholarships for students in need of financial assistance. In May 2014, Firth again won Labor preselection in the seat of Balmain for the 2015 state election. She lost the election to then sitting member,

. Firth was appointed a

Member 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 ...

in the 2023 Australia Day Honours.

Personal life

Firth grew up in

West Pymble West Pymble is a suburb on the Upper North Shore (Sydney), Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia north-west of the Sydney Central Business District in the Local government in Australia, local government area of ...

and in

Glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

. She lives in Glebe with her husband Matthew Chesher and their two children. Her brother is Charles Firth, a comedian and member of ''

The Chaser The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedy group, best known for their television programmes and satirical news masthead. The group take their name from their satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste. Th ...

''. Her aunt is Meredith Burgmann, the former NSW upper house president. Firth is the great-granddaughter of

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Ernest Burgmann. In January 2011 Firth's husband, Matthew Chesher, was charged by police for possession of the illegal drug, ecstasy. Chesher resigned immediately as chief of staff to Minister for Roads David Borger. Firth said she was "angry, hurt and very disappointed". Verity refused to say how many tablets Chesher was buying and refused to say whether she had ever taken drugs. Chesher was charged with the possession of one ecstasy tablet and subsequently placed on a 12-month good-behaviour bond with no conviction being recorded.

References

External links

Inaugural Speech to Parliament

Facebook page

Twitter account
{{DEFAULTSORT:Firth, Verity Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian chief executives 21st-century Australian lawyers Labor Left politicians Living people Politicians from Sydney 1973 births Members of the Order of Australia People educated at North Sydney Girls High School Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 21st-century Australian politicians Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Deputy lord mayors of Sydney 21st-century Australian women politicians Women's ministers of Australia University of Sydney alumni Australian solicitors Ministers for climate change (New South Wales) Ministers for education (New South Wales) Ministers for the environment (New South Wales)