predecessor successor parliament birth_place constituency_mp nationality party birth_date term_start article_title term_end name occupation alma_mater
'' new seat '' ken ticehurst australian sydney dobell australian australian labor party 24 march 1957 1 december 1984 michael lee -lrb- australian politician -rrb-
 10 november 2001 michael lee engineer university of new south wales
michael lee -lrb- australian politician -rrb-

michael john lee -lrb- born 24 march 1957 -rrb- is an australian labor politician .
he was a member of the house of representatives 1984 -- 2001 , a minister in paul keating 's government , and a member of the city of sydney council 2004 -- 08 .
lee was born in sydney and grew up in the beach side suburb of cronulla and attended de la salle college cronulla .
his immediate classmates included steve hutchins , now an australian senator , and john della bosca , formerly the nsw minister for health and now a backbencher in the nsw legislative council .
after graduating in electrical engineering from the university of new south wales , lee was employed as an engineer at the munmorah power station and vales point power station on the central coast of new south wales .
he was subsequently elected as a labor member of the australian house of representatives for the seat of dobell , at the 1984 election , serving until being defeated at the 2001 election by liberal candidate ken ticehurst .
in march 1993 , lee was appointed minister for tourism and minister for resources in the second keating ministry .
in december 1993 , he replaced bob collins and david beddall as minister for communications .
in january 1994 he gained responsibility for the arts .
he lost his ministerial responsibility with the defeat of the keating government at the 1996 election .
he was shadow minister for health from 1996 to 1998 and shadow minister for education from 1998 to 2001 .
following his defeat in 2001 , he ran as the labor candidate for lord mayor of sydney in 2004 , and was defeated by clover moore , but was elected to the council .
he is now the president of the new south wales branch of the australian labor party , following the resignation of bernie riordan .
