Eric Roozendaal
Encyclopedia
Eric Roozendaal is an Australia
n politician, serving as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council
since 2004. He is a former General Secretary of the Australian Labor Party
.
He was the Treasurer of New South Wales
, Minister of State and Regional Development, Minister of Ports and Waterways, Minister for the Illawarra, and Special Minister of State in the Rees
and Keneally
governments.
. His family is of Dutch
-Jewish descent, his grandfather perishing in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. He studied Commerce at the University of Sydney
, but did not complete the course. He would later graduate from Macquarie University
with a combined degree in Arts and Law (BA LLB). He became an organiser for the New South Wales
branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1987, Assistant General Secretary in 1995 and General Secretary in 1999. This made him the organisation head of the dominant Labor Right
faction of the party's largest state branch, a powerful position. He was also a member of the National Executive of the Party
.
Roozendaal was campaign director for Premier Bob Carr
's successful election campaign in 2003. He was also the party's chief fund-raiser, raising a reported A$
16.3 million in his four years as General Secretary. He also carried out a crackdown on branch stacking
and insisted on the selection of more female candidates in safe Labor seats.
Roozendaal was also Labor's New South Wales campaign manager at the 2004 federal election.
following Burke's election to the Australian House of Representatives
. Roozendaal was immediately appointed chair of the Standing Committee on State Development, and then in August 2005 he was appointed Minister for Ports and Waterways, and in February 2006 he was promoted to Minister for Roads. Following the 2007 election, Roozendaal was also appointed Minister for Commerce in addition to his Roads portfolio.
Despite criticisms, Roozendaal was promoted to Treasurer by incoming Premier Nathan Rees
, with immediate responsibilities for producing a 2008 mini-budget and maintaining the State's credit rating.
Roozendaal has described himself as a "rev head", due to his love of V8 Supercars. He was an advocate for transforming Sydney Olympic Park
into a V8 Supercar circuit.
just two months after the State election. He was also against cyclists using roads during busy times, saying it was "not helpful" for cyclists to ride in peak-hour traffic.
In 2010, Roozendaal was accused of wasting taxpayers' money after he took two trips to New York
at a cost of almost $100,000. Roozendaal claimed the trips were designed to reinforce New South Wales' AAA credit rating
through meetings with Moody's
and Standard & Poor's
, even though both companies had representatives in Australia that Roozendaal could have met with.
Also in 2010, online e-zine Crikey
published claims by Federal MP Julia Irwin
that Roozendaal (who has publicly professed his Dutch-Jewish heritage) and Labor Party power broker Mark Arbib
had insisted on vetting
or censoring
any speech she made relating to Palestine
.
In 2010 and 2011, Roozendaal was criticised for the deal he brokered, as Treasurer of New South Wales, to privatise some of the NSW Government's electricity assets; the retail branches of Integral Energy
and Country Energy
were sold to Origin Energy
in December 2010. In December 2010 and January 2011, members of the NSW Legislative Council attempted to hold an inquiry into the sale. However, directors
of the companies involved refused to attend hearings after the Parliament of New South Wales
was prorogued with the effect that directors would not have the protection of parliamentary privilege
while giving evidence
. The sale, unpopular with Labor's affiliate Unions NSW, was criticised by various union
leaders and several called for Roozendaal to be sacked. As a result of the sale, subsequent issues relating to the inquiry and additional concerns relating to wage negotiations for public servants
, several union leaders called on the Labor Party to move Roozendaal to an un-winnable position on the Party's Legislative Council ticket for the NSW election in March 2011
. In February 2011, Premier Kristina Keneally announced that plans to privatise other electricity assets had been cancelled but promised support for Roozendaal.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician, serving as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council
New South Wales Legislative Council
The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...
since 2004. He is a former General Secretary of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
.
He was the Treasurer of New South Wales
Treasurer of New South Wales
The Treasurer of New South Wales, known from 1856–1959 as the Colonial Treasurer of New South Wales, is the minister in the Government of New South Wales responsible for government expenditure and revenue raising and is the head of the New South Wales Treasury. The Treasurer plays a key role in...
, Minister of State and Regional Development, Minister of Ports and Waterways, Minister for the Illawarra, and Special Minister of State in the Rees
Nathan Rees
Nathan Rees MP, , an Australian politician, was the 41st Premier of New South Wales and parliamentary leader of the New South Wales division of the Australian Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009...
and Keneally
Kristina Keneally
Kristina Kerscher Keneally MP, is an Australian politician and was the 42nd Premier of New South Wales. She was elected leader of the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales and thus Premier in 2009, but went on to lose government to the Liberal/National Coalition at the March 2011 state election...
governments.
Early career
Roozendaal was born in SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. His family is of Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
-Jewish descent, his grandfather perishing in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. He studied Commerce at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
, but did not complete the course. He would later graduate from Macquarie University
Macquarie University
Macquarie University is an Australian public teaching and research university located in Sydney, with its main campus situated in Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney...
with a combined degree in Arts and Law (BA LLB). He became an organiser for the New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1987, Assistant General Secretary in 1995 and General Secretary in 1999. This made him the organisation head of the dominant Labor Right
Labor Right
The Labor Right, or Labor Unity in some State branches, or Centre Unity in NSW, is the organised faction of the Australian Labor Party that tends to be more economically liberal and socially conservative than Labor Left....
faction of the party's largest state branch, a powerful position. He was also a member of the National Executive of the Party
Australian Labor Party National Executive
The National Executive is the highest elected body of the Australian Labor Party, one of the major political parties in Australia. The Executive is elected by the party's National Conference, held every three years, and represents the party's state and territory branches. Many of its members are...
.
Roozendaal was campaign director for Premier Bob Carr
Bob Carr
Robert John "Bob" Carr , Australian statesman, was Premier of New South Wales from 4 April 1995 to 3 August 2005. He holds the record for the longest continuous service as premier of NSW...
's successful election campaign in 2003. He was also the party's chief fund-raiser, raising a reported A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
16.3 million in his four years as General Secretary. He also carried out a crackdown on branch stacking
Branch stacking
Branch stacking is the act of recruiting members for a branch of a political party for the principal purpose of influencing the outcome of internal preselections of candidates for public office...
and insisted on the selection of more female candidates in safe Labor seats.
Roozendaal was also Labor's New South Wales campaign manager at the 2004 federal election.
Political career
In 2004 Roozendaal was appointed to a vacancy in the Legislative Council, succeeding Tony BurkeTony Burke
Anthony Stephen 'Tony' Burke is an Australian politician representing the Labor Party, and the current Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities . He first entered public office in 2003 as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council...
following Burke's election to the Australian House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
. Roozendaal was immediately appointed chair of the Standing Committee on State Development, and then in August 2005 he was appointed Minister for Ports and Waterways, and in February 2006 he was promoted to Minister for Roads. Following the 2007 election, Roozendaal was also appointed Minister for Commerce in addition to his Roads portfolio.
Despite criticisms, Roozendaal was promoted to Treasurer by incoming Premier Nathan Rees
Nathan Rees
Nathan Rees MP, , an Australian politician, was the 41st Premier of New South Wales and parliamentary leader of the New South Wales division of the Australian Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009...
, with immediate responsibilities for producing a 2008 mini-budget and maintaining the State's credit rating.
Roozendaal has described himself as a "rev head", due to his love of V8 Supercars. He was an advocate for transforming Sydney Olympic Park
Sydney Olympic Park
Sydney Olympic Park is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sydney Olympic Park is located 16 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Auburn Council....
into a V8 Supercar circuit.
Controversies
As Roads Minister, Roozendaal was embarrassed for being caught illegally travelling in a Sydney bus lane in his motor vehicle, and for dumping a promise to widen the problematic Spit BridgeSpit Bridge
The Spit Bridge is a bascule bridge that carries Spit Road over Middle Harbour in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, at a point called "The Spit", 10 km north-east of the CBD. It connects the suburbs of Mosman, on the south bank and Seaforth, on the north bank...
just two months after the State election. He was also against cyclists using roads during busy times, saying it was "not helpful" for cyclists to ride in peak-hour traffic.
In 2010, Roozendaal was accused of wasting taxpayers' money after he took two trips to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
at a cost of almost $100,000. Roozendaal claimed the trips were designed to reinforce New South Wales' AAA credit rating
Credit rating
A credit rating evaluates the credit worthiness of an issuer of specific types of debt, specifically, debt issued by a business enterprise such as a corporation or a government. It is an evaluation made by a credit rating agency of the debt issuers likelihood of default. Credit ratings are...
through meetings with Moody's
Moody's
Moody's Corporation is the holding company for Moody's Analytics and Moody's Investors Service, a credit rating agency which performs international financial research and analysis on commercial and government entities. The company also ranks the credit-worthiness of borrowers using a standardized...
and Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's is a United States-based financial services company. It is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks and bonds. It is well known for its stock-market indices, the US-based S&P 500, the Australian S&P/ASX 200, the Canadian...
, even though both companies had representatives in Australia that Roozendaal could have met with.
Also in 2010, online e-zine Crikey
Crikey
Crikey is an independent Australian electronic magazine comprising an open access website and an email newsletter available to subscribers. Well known in Australian political, media and business circles, Crikey was described by former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham as the "most popular...
published claims by Federal MP Julia Irwin
Julia Irwin
Julia Claire Irwin , Australian politician, was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from October 1998 to July 2010, representing the Division of Fowler, New South Wales...
that Roozendaal (who has publicly professed his Dutch-Jewish heritage) and Labor Party power broker Mark Arbib
Mark Arbib
Mark Victor Arbib is an Australian politician. He has been a Labor member of the Australian Senate since July 2008, representing the state of New South Wales. He was the Australian Labor Party State Secretary of the New South Wales branch from 2004 to 2007...
had insisted on vetting
Vetting
Vetting is a process of examination and evaluation, generally referring to performing a background check on someone before offering him or her employment, conferring an award, etc...
or censoring
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
any speech she made relating to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
.
In 2010 and 2011, Roozendaal was criticised for the deal he brokered, as Treasurer of New South Wales, to privatise some of the NSW Government's electricity assets; the retail branches of Integral Energy
Integral Energy
Integral Energy is the second largest state-owned energy corporation in New South Wales, incorporated under the Energy Services Corporations Act 1995 from a merger between Prospect Electricity and Illawarra Electricity...
and Country Energy
Country Energy
Country Energy is a retail subsidiary of Origin Energy. The corporation was formally owned by the Government of New South Wales. It provides natural gas and electricity to retail customers in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.-History:On 1...
were sold to Origin Energy
Origin Energy
-History:Origin Energy was formed in February 2000, as a result of a demerger from the Australian conglomerate Boral Limited, in which the energy business was removed from the building and construction materials business to form the new company....
in December 2010. In December 2010 and January 2011, members of the NSW Legislative Council attempted to hold an inquiry into the sale. However, directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
of the companies involved refused to attend hearings after the Parliament of New South Wales
Parliament of New South Wales
The Parliament of New South Wales, located in Parliament House on Macquarie Street, Sydney, is the main legislative body in the Australian state of New South Wales . It is a bicameral parliament elected by the people of the state in general elections. The parliament shares law making powers with...
was prorogued with the effect that directors would not have the protection of parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...
while giving evidence
Evidence
Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
. The sale, unpopular with Labor's affiliate Unions NSW, was criticised by various union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
leaders and several called for Roozendaal to be sacked. As a result of the sale, subsequent issues relating to the inquiry and additional concerns relating to wage negotiations for public servants
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
, several union leaders called on the Labor Party to move Roozendaal to an un-winnable position on the Party's Legislative Council ticket for the NSW election in March 2011
New South Wales state election, 2011
Elections to the 55th Parliament of New South Wales were held on Saturday, 26 March 2011. The 16-year incumbent Australian Labor Party government led by Premier Kristina Keneally was defeated in a landslide by the Liberal-National coalition opposition led by Barry O'Farrell.New South Wales has...
. In February 2011, Premier Kristina Keneally announced that plans to privatise other electricity assets had been cancelled but promised support for Roozendaal.