Lindsay James Tanner (born 24 April 1956) is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Melbourne, Victoria, for the Australian Labor Party, having first won the seat at the 1993 federal election. He has been a member of the Rudd Ministry since 3 December 2007, serving as the Minister for Finance and Deregulation. He has authored several books and been an outspoken commentator on Australian culture and the direction and role of the Labor Party.

Background

Lindsay Tanner was born in the East Gippsland town of Orbost, studying at the local state primary school before obtaining a scholarship to Gippsland Grammar School in Sale, where he graduated as dux in 1973. He entered University of Melbourne, where he graduated with Honours in Law and Bachelor of Arts, and later a Master of Arts which he graduated in 1981. While still at university, he co-wrote a book on environmental politics and worked as a casual layout and design artist.

Tanner began his career as an articled clerk and solicitor at Holding Redlich Lawyers in Melbourne. In 1985, he became an electorate assistant to Labor senator Barney Cooney. He was Assistant State Secretary of the Federated Clerks' Union from 1987, then State Secretary from 1988 until 1993.

He has been married twice, and has one son and three daughters.^[1]

Parliamentary career

In March 1993 Tanner was elected to the Australian House of Representatives representing the Division of Melbourne, and served one term as a government backbencher during Paul Keating's final term as Prime Minister.

The Liberal Party under John Howard won the March 1996 election, and Keating subsequently retired from politics. A major reshuffle by new leader Kim Beazley resulted in Tanner's promotion to the Shadow Ministry and appointment as Shadow Minister for Transport. He remained a member of the Shadow Ministry, despite numerous changes of leadership, continuously until the election of the Rudd Labor government in November 2007.

In 1998, Tanner was moved to the portfolios of Finance and Consumer Affairs. In 1999, he wrote a book entitled Open Australia, exploring how information technology could be used in the future to enhance social justice and economic equality; and a number of articles^{[citation needed]} on targeted, "micro" ways of addressing globalisation and the decline of large-scale manufacturing, in which he suggested there was little substance to the notion put forward by neoclassical economists of a "simulated free market" in East Asian economies that explains their "emergence" (see 1997 Asian Financial Crisis).^[2] Following the 2001 election, he became Shadow Minister for Communications.

Tanner has been a prominent member of Labor's left faction and it was thought that he might contest the Labor leadership in 2002, when former leader Kim Beazley first challenged Simon Crean. He was publicly urged to do so by a number of his colleagues, such as Dr Carmen Lawrence, but declined.^{[citation needed]} In the second leadership spill in December 2003, Tanner supported Beazley^{[citation needed]}, who lost the party-room ballot to Mark Latham. The following month, Latham appointed Tanner to the new portfolio of Community Relationships, in addition to his existing responsibilities.

After the October 2004 federal election, Tanner was thought to be a candidate for the position of Shadow Treasurer, vacated by Simon Crean. However, once it became clear that Latham did not intend offering him this position, Tanner announced that he would not stand for a position in the new shadow ministry. He subsequently released a brief statement, stating that he had "no complaint about how Mark Latham has dealt with [him] personally", but adding that he had "serious reservations about the emerging Labor response to our latest election defeat."^{[citation needed]} In June 2005 Tanner was re-elected to the Opposition frontbench and was appointed Shadow Minister for Finance.

The 2007 election saw Tanner's seat of Melbourne face the Greens on the two party preferred vote, the first seat to do so at a federal election. Labor retained the seat on 54.7 percent of the two party vote. After the successful election of the federal Labor Party, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd retained Tanner as Minister for Finance and Deregulation.^[3] The role had previously only been known as Minister for Finance and Administration.

Publications

Tanner has been published extensively in newspapers and journals. His major works are detailed below:

• Russ, Peter; Tanner, Lindsay. (1978) The politics of pollution. Camberwell, VIC: Widescope. ISBN 0-869-32072-6. (186 pages)
• Tanner, Lindsay. (1984) "Working class politics and culture : a case study of Brunswick in the 1920s." Parkville, VIC: University of Melbourne (MA thesis). (PDF copy) (161 pages)
• Tanner, Lindsay. (1996) The last battle. Carlton, VIC: Kokkino Press. ISBN 0-646-28912-8 (216 pages)
• Tanner, Lindsay. (1999) "Engaging with the world" (12th Stan Kelly Memorial Lecture, 30 September 1999). Melbourne: Economic Society of Australia (Victorian Branch). (16 pages)
• Tanner, Lindsay. (1999) Open Australia. Annandale, NSW: Pluto Press. ISBN 1-864-03052-6 (248 pages)
• Tanner, Lindsay. (2003) Crowded lives. North Melbourne, VIC: Pluto Press. ISBN 1-864-03272-3 (124 pages) (Review)
• Tanner, Lindsay. (2003) "Courage and compassion" (Arthur Calwell Memorial Lecture, 19 September 2003). Melbourne. (24 pages)
• Tanner, Lindsay. (2007) "Labor going global" (Chifley Memorial Lecture, 14 March 2007). Melbourne: University of Melbourne. (16 pages)

See also

• First Rudd Ministry

References

External links

• Personal website
• Australian Parliament Bio
• Fairfax Blog
• Herald Sun Blog
• Department of Finance and Deregulation

• Search or browse Hansard for Lindsay Tanner at OpenAustralia.org