Jenny Macklin

Jenny Macklin served for twenty-three years as the federal Member for Jagajaga. Jenny was the longest-serving woman in the House of Representatives, and was the first woman to become the deputy leader of a major Australian political party. She was the Deputy Leader of the federal parliamentary Labor Party from 2001 to 2006, and she served as the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and the Minister for Disability Reform in the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments. She oversaw the Apology to the Stolen Generations and development of the Closing the Gap framework, and the introduction of Australia’s first national Paid Parental Leave scheme; delivered the largest increase to the pension in the history of the payment; was responsible for the design and implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme; and was an integral part of the establishment of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.