Don Farrell

Early life

Farrell was born on 6 June 1954 in Murray Bridge, South Australia. He is the son of Mary Heptinstall and Edward William Farrell. His father was a member of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and stood for federal parliament unsuccessfully on six occasions, five times for the seat of Boothby and once for the Senate.

During his childhood, Farrell lived for periods in Crafers, Forestville, Panorama, and Daw Park. He began his schooling at St Therese's School and completed his secondary education at Blackfriars Priory School. He subsequently completed the degree of Bachelor of Laws at the University of Adelaide. He worked for six years in his uncle's kiosk at Cleland Wildlife Park, and also worked as a mail sorter, council worker and waiter for periods.

Union career

Farrell joined the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) as an industrial officer in 1976. He was promoted to assistant secretary in 1980 and became state secretary in 1993, serving until his election to the Senate.

Political career

Farrell joined the ALP in 1976 and was elected as a delegate to state conference and state council in the same year. He was a delegate to the Australian Labor Party National Conference from 1984 and was elected state president of the ALP in 1988.

Farrell first ran for parliament at the 1988 Adelaide by-election but was unsuccessful. In June 2007, Farrell won preselection for the first position on Labor's Senate ticket in the 2007 election and he was subsequently the first elected senator for South Australia at the general election. His term began on 1 July 2008.

Gillard and Rudd governments

Following the 2010 federal election, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water. On 25 March 2013, Farrell was promoted into the Outer Ministry as the Minister for Science and Research and the Minister Assisting on Tourism. On 1 July 2013 as part of the Second Rudd Ministry, Farrell was appointed the Minister for Sport as well as remaining Minister Assisting on Tourism.

In 2011 Farrell was listed as number six on the top ten political fixers as identified by The Power Index website. Where the article states that South Australian Labor's former deputy leader, Ralph Clarke commented:"He controls the pre-selection directly or indirectly of every MP in South Australia. If you want to get on, you get on with Don."

In 2012, he was again selected as the first candidate on Labor's Senate ticket in the 2013 federal election, causing some controversy as he defeated Penny Wong for the leading Senate position. At the time, Wong was a senior minister in the Second Gillard Ministry and a member of the Australian Cabinet. Anthony Albanese accused union powerbrokers of not listening to the electorate and instead focusing on its own ructions. He labelled the move as:"...gross self-indulgent rubbish.... [taken by] ....those who should care more about the party and less about themselves." He stated that he would demand that Labor's national executive overturn the decision and promote Senator Wong to the number one spot. On 30 October 2012, Farrell stepped aside to give Wong the number one spot on Labor's senate ticket for the 2013 election. He was quoted as saying:"I was concerned that the issue was damaging the Labor Party. ..... I was prepared to do a swap with Penny. This is a case whereby modern Labor can't be seen to be concentrating on our internals at the expense of what is going on out there in the electorate and what is expected." Wong later expressed favourable sentiments about Farrell after his decision to stand aside:"Throughout his career, Don has always put the Labor Party first and he has demonstrated that principle again today."

Time in opposition

Farrell was defeated at the 2013 federal election and his term in the Senate ended on 30 June 2014.

In January 2014, it was announced that Michael O'Brien offered Farrell his state seat of Napier, so that Farrell could contest the 2014 South Australian election, representing Labor. Premier Jay Weatherill threatened to resign if Farrell was successfully preselected. A few hours later, Farrell withdrew his nomination.

In 2016 Farrell was endorsed as a Labor candidate for the Senate in South Australia in the 2016 federal election, and was subsequently re-elected. He was elected and returned to the Labor frontbench in October 2016.

Farrell opposed same-sex marriage and supported the view of "traditional marriage as being between a man and a woman". He said he would only vote for marriage equality after the 2019 election. He had publicly stated that he would vote against marriage equality in the parliament regardless of the results of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey. When the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 bill was voted in the senate, Farrell abstained from voting.

Ministry in Albanese Government

After the ALP's victory at the 2022 federal election, Farrell became the deputy leader of the government in the Senate. He was appointed to cabinet in the Albanese ministry, becoming Special Minister of State and Minister for Trade and Tourism. In the role, Farrell has kept pressure on his China counterparts to lift their trade sanctions against Australian exports, saying, "Things aren’t going to get back to normal until they lift those bans."

These efforts appear to have paid off in April 2024, when China lifted its punitive tariffs on Australian wine. However, Farrell maintained his goal of diversifying trade risk away from China, beginning new free trade agreements with the UK and India. On New Year's Day 2022, Farrell's free trade agreement with India became active, with tariffs being removed on 85% of Australia's exports to India. His goal of securing a free trade agreement with the European Union had eluded him, with the Minister leaving a meeting with his EU counterpart in 2023.

Personal life

In 2014, following the end of his first Senate term, Farrell established Farrell Wines, a vineyard in the Clare Valley.

Farrell is married to Nimfa and has 3 grown daughters.{{cite web|url=https://www.alp.org.au/our-people/our-people/don-farrell/ | title= Don Farrell - Senator for South Australia | work=Australian Labor Party | access-date=2025-04-28}}

References

References

1. "Senator the Hon Don Farrell". Parliament of Australia.
2. (3 September 2008). "Maiden speech". Parliament of Australia.
3. Naughton, Kevin. (31 January 2014). "The rise and fall of Don Farrell". InDaily.
4. "Labor's new-look shadow ministry". Special Broadcasting Service.
5. Manning, Haydon. (2005). "Yes, Premier: Labor Leadership in Australia's States and Territories". UNSW Press.
6. (14 September 2010). "Second Gillard Ministry".
7. "Administrative Arrangements Order". COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA.
8. (25 March 2013). "Full list of changes to the Gillard ministry". [[The Sydney Morning Herald]].
9. (July 2013). "Kevin Rudd's new-look ministry". ABC News, 1 July 2013.
10. (1 July 2013). "Second Rudd Ministry". [[Commonwealth of Australia]].
11. (13 July 2011). "Political fixers, no. 6". The Power Index.
12. Wright, Jessica. (27 October 2012). "Wong senate snub risks factional flare-up". Sydney Morning Herald.
13. Osborne, Paul. (30 October 2012). "Labor avoids stoush over SA Senate post". [[The Sydney Morning Herald]].
14. [http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-02/labor-godfather-hints-at-political-return/4992810 Labor "Godfather" hints at political return] {{Webarchive. link. (31 October 2016 . ABC News Online, 2 October 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2013)
15. (31 January 2014). "Premier Weatherill tells 891 Breakfast he will reconsider leadership if Farrell accepts preselection". 891 ABC Adelaide radio.
16. (31 January 2014). "Labor in pre-election crisis as Premier Jay Weatherill threatens to resign if Labor Senator Don Farrell is endorsed for state seat". [[ABC News (Australia).
17. (31 January 2014). "Labor Senator Don Farrell withdraws bid to enter SA Parliament". [[ABC News (Australia).
18. Rebecca Puddy. (12 May 2016). "Federal election 2016: Don Farrell wins No 2 spot on Senate list". The Australian.
19. Karp, Paul. (2 August 2016). "Family First's Bob Day edges Labor out for final South Australian Senate seat". [[Guardian Australia]].
20. (11 October 2016). "The Godfather returns: right-wing powerbroker Don Farrell back on Labor frontbench". Sydney Morning Herald.
21. Maiden, Samantha. (15 October 2016). "Marriage equality: ALP bigwig Don Farrell will vote for change after next election". The Sunday Telegraph.
22. Yaxley, Louise. (2017-11-14). "How your MP will vote if Australia says Yes to same-sex marriage". ABC News.
23. (29 November 2017). "SENATE - Hansard".
24. Karvelas, Patricia. (14 November 2022). "ABC Radio National with Patricia Karvelas".
25. Butler, Josh. (2024-03-28). "China scraps tariffs on Australian wine". The Guardian.
26. Clun, Rachel. (2022-11-14). "UK, India trade deals weeks away while negotiations continue for 'game changer' EU deal".
27. (2022-12-29). "Positive sign for China trade relationship".
28. (2024-05-02). "Why a European Union FTA with Australia matters".
29. (2022-12-07). "Humiliation is not too strong a word for what happened: Don Farrell". [[The Advertiser (Adelaide)]].