Close call: PM picks deputy premier for top national job
SA Deputy Premier Susan Close answered the call from “Albo” asking her to stand as national senior vice-president of the Labor Party while she was in Bow Hill surveying clean-up work from the River Murray floods.
“I’ve had the Prime Minister’s number in my phone under ‘Albo’ for several years and it’s the first time I’ve received a call,” Close says, juggling a coffee in Brisbane as she prepares for the party’s national conference.
“He said he was interested in having someone from South Australia … he wanted someone from our state and with credibility.”
It’s a powerful national role to win with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s backing, and one Close will be sworn into at the beginning of the Labor Party’s 49th national conference starting in Brisbane tomorrow.
Some 400 delegates and more than 2000 party faithful from around Australia are descending on Brisbane for the first national conference under a federal Labor Government in more than a decade.
Tomorrow they will watch former Treasurer Wayne Swan be again sworn in as national president of the party, and Close will then chair a climate and environment session later in the day.
She is also chairing two other sessions during the conference; one about Bringing People Together, the other entitled Strengthening Australia’s Democracy that will discuss the Constitution, “an electoral system we can all trust” and “healthy debate”.
There will be a strong contingent from South Australia in the audience.
Premier Peter Malinauskas will be among the crowd after attending the national cabinet meeting in Brisbane this week, while SA Attorney-General Kyam Maher is chairing a session focusing on the federal Voice to Parliament.
Close says the Prime Minister was not specific during his phone call about what he wants her to bring to the table but he knew her strengths as a minister covering the portfolios of climate, environment and water, as well as industry, innovation and science plus defence and space industries.
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“I am well-known to be a strong advocate for the environment and I think it’s well-known that I’m pro having more women and diversity in the party, I was very active in having more women stand for us at the last election for example,” she says.
“And I’ll be making sure South Australia’s voice is heard at a national level.”
She replaces Port Adelaide federal MP and Health Minister Mark Butler in the role.
Before entering parliament, Close was an executive in the SA Environment Department, oversaw students’ services at Adelaide University and she has a PhD from Flinders University in political science.
