Anna Burke facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Honourable Anna Burke AO
28th Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives
In office 9 October 2012 – 5 August 2013
Deputy	Bruce Scott
Preceded by	Peter Slipper
Succeeded by	Bronwyn Bishop
Deputy Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives
In office 24 November 2011 – 9 October 2012
Preceded by	Peter Slipper
Succeeded by	Bruce Scott
In office 12 February 2008 – 28 September 2010
Preceded by	Harry Jenkins
Succeeded by	Peter Slipper
Member of the Australian Parliament for Chisholm
In office 3 October 1998 – 9 May 2016
Preceded by	Michael Wooldridge
Succeeded by	Julia Banks
Personal details
Born	Anna Elizabeth Burke (1966-01-01) 1 January 1966 (age 59) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Political party	Labor Party
Spouse	Stephen Burgess ​ (m. 1994)​
Children	Two
Residence	Box Hill South
Education	Presentation College, Windsor
Alma mater	University of Melbourne Monash University
Occupation	Union representative, Politician

Anna Elizabeth Burke (born 1 January 1966) is an Australian former politician. She was the 28th Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives from October 2012 to August 2013. She also served as Acting Speaker before that.

Anna Burke was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She was a member of parliament (MP) for the area called Chisholm from 1998 to 2016.

Before becoming a politician, Anna Burke worked to help workers in unions. She was also a Deputy Speaker twice. She became Speaker after Peter Slipper resigned in 2012. She was the second woman to hold this important role.

While in parliament, Anna Burke spoke out against policies that kept refugees in detention centers far from Australia. These policies were supported by many major parties at the time. She left politics in 2016. Today, she is a member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). She is also an Officer of the Order of Australia, which is a special honor.

Early Life and Education

Anna Elizabeth Burke was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 1 January 1966. She was one of five children in her family. Her father worked as an electrician, and her mother was a kindergarten teacher.

Anna Burke went to Presentation College, Windsor. In grade 5, she found out she had dyslexia. This meant she took her high-school exams by speaking her answers instead of writing them. In 1988, she earned a degree in English Literature from Monash University. Later, in 1994, she got a master's degree from the University of Melbourne. This degree focused on how people work together in companies.

Career Journey

Before she became a politician, Anna Burke worked in jobs that helped people at work. She was a union official, which means she helped workers with their rights. She also managed human resources, which involves looking after employees.

She worked for VicRoads from 1988 to 1993. Then, she worked at Victoria University from 1993 to 1994. In 1994, Anna Burke joined the Finance Sector Union. Here, she helped organize campaigns and spoke for the union.

Starting in Politics

In 1996, Anna Burke joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The party chose her to run for the area of Division of Chisholm in 1997. At that time, a Liberal Party politician named Michael Wooldridge held the seat. He had been the MP for over 11 years.

Many people did not expect Anna Burke to win. But Michael Wooldridge decided to run in a different area. So, in the 1998 Australian federal election, Anna Burke won the seat against the Liberal candidate. This was a big win for her and the Labor Party.

Time in Parliament

In 2005, Anna Burke suggested a new law. This law was an early idea for the Do Not Call Register. This register lets people stop getting unwanted phone calls from telemarketers. After the Labor Party won the election in 2007, Anna Burke became Deputy Speaker. This means she helped the main Speaker run meetings in parliament.

In 2008, something funny happened in parliament. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was away visiting flood victims. To show they were unhappy, the Opposition brought a cardboard cut-out of him into the meeting room. Anna Burke asked for the "offensive article" to be removed. This made some people laugh. When one MP refused to leave, Anna Burke had to stop the meeting for a short time.

As Deputy Speaker, Anna Burke also spoke about banning websites that encourage eating disorders. She kept working to raise awareness about eating disorders throughout her time in parliament.

In 2011, the Speaker, Harry Jenkins, decided to step down. The government then chose Peter Slipper to become the new Speaker. Anna Burke was then chosen to be the Deputy Speaker again.

In April 2012, Peter Slipper stepped aside from his role as Speaker. In October 2012, he resigned. Later that evening, Anna Burke was chosen as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives. She was the second woman ever to hold this important job, after Joan Child. As Speaker, Anna Burke asked members to call her "Speaker" instead of "Madam Speaker." She also became known for being very direct and for her "death stare" when members were not following the rules.

In May 2012, an MP named Craig Thomson voted with the Opposition by surprise. To avoid counting his vote, some Opposition members, including the leader Tony Abbott, tried to leave the room. But Anna Burke had already ordered the doors to be locked. While Speaker, Anna Burke also spoke out against child beauty pageants, but she was not successful in banning them.

In August 2012, Anna Burke asked Tony Abbott to leave the House for an hour. He had refused to take back something he said. It was very rare for an Opposition leader to be asked to leave. In 2013, people watching from the public gallery interrupted meetings by calling the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, a liar. Anna Burke said, "This is Question Time. It is not a football match," and some people were removed.

In August 2013, Anna Burke's office in Melbourne was damaged. People wrote "fre the refugees" on it and broke windows. This was a protest against the government's policies on asylum seekers.

In the 2013 Australian federal election, Anna Burke was re-elected for her area. Her time as Speaker ended when the government changed. She then tried to become the chief whip for the Opposition, but she was not successful. Anna Burke said that women were not being chosen for important roles in her party based on their skills. In 2014, Anna Burke appeared on a TV show called Q+A. Protesters interrupted the show to criticize a minister. In 2015, Anna Burke announced she would not run for parliament again in the 2016 Australian federal election.

After Politics

Anna Burke's official portrait as Speaker was painted in 2015 by artist Jude Rae. This was the first time both the person in the portrait and the artist were women in Parliament's collection. The portrait was shown at Parliament House, Canberra, in 2017. In 2019, Anna Burke was made an Officer of the Order of Australia. This was for her great service to the Australian Parliament, especially as Speaker.

From 2016 to 2018, Anna Burke was the head of Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia. As of 2024, she is on the board of the Institute for Breathing and Sleep. She also joined the board of RedR Australia in 2018. Since 2019, she has been the chair of the Monash University Accident Research Centre.

In 2017, Anna Burke became a full-time member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. This is a group that reviews government decisions. Her term is set to end in 2024. In 2024, she was involved in a case about a man whose visa was cancelled. The Tribunal decided he could stay in Australia because of his strong ties to the community.

Political Views

Refugee Policy

Anna Burke often spoke out against the Labor Party's policies on asylum seekers. She did not agree with keeping refugees in detention centers far away from Australia. This policy was supported by many major parties when she was in parliament.

Anna Burke said she felt "deeply uneasy" about using places like Manus Island for detention. She also said she was "not in favour of mandatory detention, particularly of women and children." She explained that her role as Speaker made it hard for her to speak out strongly in parliament.

In 2013, she even said she "sometimes wondered [why she ran for the Labor party]" because of the refugee policy. In 2014, after a refugee died on Manus Island, Anna Burke wrote an article asking for an end to offshore detention. She also tried to get her party to stop sending asylum seekers to Manus Island and Nauru. This idea was not successful.

When she announced she was leaving parliament in 2016, the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten called her a "fearless and tireless advocate for the rights of asylum seekers." In her final speech to parliament, Anna Burke called offshore detention centers a "festering wound."

Food Allergies

Anna Burke's son has a serious peanut allergy. Because of this, she became very interested in policies about food allergies. In 2014, she suggested creating a national register for allergens. In 2015, she started the Parliamentary Allergy Alliance. She worked with other politicians to raise awareness and support for people with allergies.

Personal Life

Anna Burke married Stephen Burgess in 1994. They have two children. In 1999, when her first child was born, Anna Burke became only the second woman to give birth while serving as a Member of the Australian Parliament. Her second child was born in 2002.

See also

In Spanish: Anna Burke para niños