page_title: John Faulkner
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: John Faulkner / Political career
caption_attribution_description: English: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates with Australian Defence Minister John Faulkner
context_page_description: John Philip Faulkner is an Australian former politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian Senate from 1989 to 2015, representing the state of New South Wales. Following a period serving on various Senate Committees and as Deputy Whip, he was a Minister in the Keating Labor government 1993–96. Following several years in opposition as a Shadow Minister, he was appointed in 2007 as Vice-President of the Executive Council and Special Minister of State in the First Rudd Government. He was Minister for Defence from June 2009 to September 2010.
  Faulkner sat on the backbench from the 2010 election until his resignation, and is considered by some as an elder statesman. On 1 July 2014, he became the Father of the Australian Senate until he resigned on 6 February 2015, with the title passing to Senator Ian Macdonald.
  Faulkner is a Member of the Board of the Global Panel Foundation – Australasia – an NGO that works behind the scenes in crisis areas around the world.
context_section_description: A leading member of the Socialist Left faction of the ALP, Faulkner was appointed to the Senate in 1989 to succeed the former left-wing minister Arthur Gietzelt, who had resigned mid-term. In the Keating Labor government, Faulkner was Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Science and Personnel 1993–94, and Minister for the Environment, Sport and Territories, with a seat in the Cabinet, 1994–96.
  After the defeat of the Keating government in 1996, Faulkner became Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, and was a member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry 1996–2004. He was at various times Shadow Minister for Social Security, Public Administration and Home Affairs. He was a key Labor strategist in the 1998, 2001 and 2004 federal elections, and was a particularly close advisor to Mark Latham during the 2004 election. In the wake of Labor's defeat in that election, he resigned his positions. Faulkner became the first Labor Senate leader who did not become Government Senate leader since Don Willesee.
  In October 2006 John Faulkner was elected as the National President of the Australian Labor Party until February 2008 and chaired the Labor's National Conference in 2007.
  In the First Rudd Ministry, Faulkner served as the Vice-President of the Executive Council, Special Minister of State and Cabinet Secretary. In his role he introduced new rules for ministerial conduct and fundraising aimed at reducing the influence of lobbyists on government decisions. He also introduced new guidelines reducing the overt political control of government funded advertising.
  On 9 June 2009, Faulkner was sworn in the Minister for Defence, replacing Joel Fitzgibbon, who had stepped down on 4 June. He retained this portfolio in the First Gillard government until the 2010 federal election following an earlier announcement that he would step down as Defence Minister and return to the backbench.
  In 2014 Faulkner began a process of reforms that sought to stamp out perceived corruption and factional infighting within the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party. Faulkner proposed to include rank–and–file members in decisions such as the selection of candidates for Senate and Legislative Council vacancies and party tickets, and a vote in the direct election of the New South Wales parliamentary leaders. However, Faulkner's reform proposals were mostly rejected at NSW Labor's 2014 conference. The direct election of party leader gained support with effect from after the 2015 election.
caption: John Faulkner (left) with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates (right).
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