Kevin Andrews (Australian politician) Totally Explained

Everything about Kevin Andrews Australian Politician totally explained

Kevin James Andrews (born 9 November 1955), is an Australian politician and member of the Liberal Party of Australia. He is a member of the House of Representatives, and was Minister for Immigration and Citizenship in the Howard Government, having previously been Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations from 7 October 2003 to 30 January 2007, during which time he implemented the unpopular WorkChoices labour market reforms.. He is now a member of the opposition backbench.
During his tenure as Immigration Minister, Andrews' handling of the Haneef affair has been criticised, as have his comments on the need to cut the intake of refugees from Africa.

Early Life

Kevin Andrews was born in Sale, Victoria, and was educated at Melbourne University where he lived at Newman College. He completed a Master of Laws (LLM) at Monash University, and practised as a barrister.
He was Co-ordinator of Continuing Legal Education for the Law Institute of Victoria from 1981 to 1983, and an Associate to Sir James Gobbo, Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, from 1983 to 1985.
While practising law he was involved with the St Vincent's Bioethics Centre, the Mercy Hospital for Women, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, and the Lincoln School of Health Sciences. He was also a board member of Caritas Christi Hospice.

Political career

Kevin Andrews was elected to the House of Representatives during a 1991 by-election, representing the Division of Menzies in Victoria for the Liberal Party of Australia.
   As a backbencher, Andrews authored the Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996 to overrule Northern Territory legislation that legalised euthanasia (the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995). It is one of only fifteen Private Member's Bills passed into law in Australian parliamentary history.
   Andrews has called for an end to trials of the RU-486 drug, and voted against a bill that took away the Health Minister's power to veto applications to allow the drug to be used.
   In taking a stance against stem cell research in 2002, he stated that it was the "first time" that "human beings can be treated as a commodity".. He also took a stance against stem cell research during a debate in 2006, which resulted in the overturning of a previous ban on the research.
   After the Coalition's third victory in 2001, Andrews was brought into the outer ministry as Minister for Ageing, a portfolio in which he served from 26 November 2001 to 7 October 2003. He was subsequently appointed to Cabinet as the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and was responsible for introducing the Howard Government's major changes to industrial relations law in 2005, commonly known as WorkChoices. In a reshuffle in early 2007, Andrews was made Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, a position which he held until the swearing-in of the First Rudd Ministry on 3 December 2007, following the defeat of the Howard Government in the 2007 election.
   Kevin Andrews is a member of the Lyons Forum, a socially conservative Christian faction within the Coalition. He has served as the Forum Secretary and is credited with suggesting the name for the faction.
   In the 2007 Federal election, Andrews was re-elected to the seat of Menzies with a 4.96% swing toward the Labor Party.

Haneef affair

As Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Andrews attracted controversy after he revoked on character grounds the visa of Dr Mohamed Haneef, who had been granted bail on charges of aiding terrorists. This was criticised as a move to keep Haneef in detention; upon posting bail, Haneef would have been transferred from Brisbane's Wolston Correctional Centre to Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre. Andrews defended his actions as being in accordance with the Migration Act and Haneef's lawyers challenged his interpretation of the Act in the Federal Court..
After the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped all charges against Haneef, Andrews refused calls to reinstate Haneef's visa, stating that his personal evidence was still valid. Andrew's refusal resulted in calls for a public inquiry into the incident by then Queensland Premier Peter Beattie.
Andrews' justification of his decision, on the basis that he'd a reasonable suspicion that Haneef had associated with suspected terrorists and therefore failed the test of good character that a person must pass to keep a visa, was rejected in the Federal Court, and the revocation of Haneef's visa was overturned.. However in November, e-mails released under the Freedom of Information act appeared to indicate that Andrews' office had a plan to revoke the visa before the case went to court, in the case that bail was granted.

Publications record

Following Andrews' criticism of irregularities discovered in the CV of an Indian doctor working on the Gold Coast, various media organisations carried reports disputing Andrews' claim on parliamentary and ministerial websites to have co-authored three books, having contributing only a chapter to each. Andrews argued in his own defence that � "In common, everyday parlance, as one of the authors (of a chapter) I presumed you called yourself a co-author - that's all I've simply done. I wasn't aware, to be frank, of some publishing convention that someone's referred to (that suggests otherwise). If that offends people's sensibilities well so be it, basically."

2007 Immigration Controversy

In October 2007 Kevin Andrews came under fire over his handling of his immigration portfolio.
   Andrews' decision to cut Australia's refugee intake from African nations was branded by some critics as "racist",
   and pulling out the race card before the 2007 Australian Federal election.
   Andrews defended the decision, saying: "Some groups don't seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we'd hope." Andrews accused Sudanese refugees of fighting in bars and congregating in parks to drink alcoholic beverages, but didn't provide statistics to back up his claims. However, Andrew's actions were applauded by the anti-immigration politician, Pauline Hanson.
   Andrews is an advisor to the Board of Life Decisions International (LDI), a (non-denominational) religious pro-life group that's primarily concerned with opposing the pro-choice Planned Parenthood organisation. LDI campaigns for chastity, boycotts corporations and names individual celebrities who support abortion, euthanasia, or embryonic stem cell experimentation or who, in their opinion, support sexual promiscuity. These include GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Time Warner and Disney.
   Andrews has described his role as "honorary patronage". He was criticised by the Sydney Morning Herald for failing to declare his wife's membership on Life Decisions International's Board of Advisors on his entry in the Parliamentary Register of Pecuniary Interests.
   Andrews made a speech to the Endeavour Forum on 9 April 2003a group focusing on women's issues, opposing abortion, equal opportunity and affirmative action.
   He has also spoken at Family Council of Victoria, an organisation which regards homosexuality as the manifestation of a psychiatric disorder. Family Council of Victoria also opposes sex-education and anti-homophobia policies in public schools, which it claims is "pro-homosexual indoctrination" of students.
   Andrews supports immigration as a way to slow population aging in Australia. During an address to the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia, he said that "The level of net overseas migration is important as net inflows of migrants to Australia reduce the rate of population ageing because migrants are younger on average than the resident population. Just under 70% of the migrant intake are in the 15 – 44 age cohort, compared to 43% of the Australian population as a whole. Just 10% of the migrant intake are 45 or over, compared with 38% of the Australian population."

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