Meredith Burgmann
Meredith Anne Burgmann (born 26 July 1947) is an Australian politician and Labor Party member and a former President of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Early years Burgmann was born in July 1947 at Beecroft, New South Wales to parents Victor Dudley Burgmann (son of Canberra Anglican bishop Ernest Henry Burgmann) and Lorna Constance Bradbury. Her late father was a chairman of the CSIRO. Her sister is Verity Burgmann. She attended Blackfriars Correspondence School and Abbotsleigh School in Sydney, where she was headgirl. She attended Sydney University and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1969, majoring in English and Government. She continued her studies at the university and obtained a Master of Arts in 1973 specialising in Foreign Policy. In 1981 she completed her doctorate on Industrial Relations at Macquarie University. She became the first female President of the National Tertiary Education Union. Burgmann joined the Australian Labor Party in 1971. She was involved in the Industrial Relations Committee between 1990 and 1995, the Foreign Affairs Committee between 1986 and 1990, as well as being a delegate to the Sydney Federal Executive Council. She was a Member of the New South Wales Labor Council between 1978 and 1991 and also of the ACTU Congress between 1983 and 1989. She was a tutor and lecturer at Macquarie University from 1974, and became a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in 1989 and remained in that role until 1991. She taught Industrial Relations and Politics. In 1985 she married Glen Batchelor and they have one son. Batchelor and Burgmann divorced in 1990. Political career Some of her first forays into politics have been as an activist. She has been arrested 21 times and spent time in prison for running onto the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1971 during the Springboks tour. She claims to be the only person sent to prison for running onto a sporting field during a major sporting event. She was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council on 25 May 1991. As an upper house member of parliament, she served as the chair on the Parliamentary Privileges and Ethics Committee. In that committee, she led an inquiry into certain paedophile conspiracy allegations made by the former politician Franca Arena. It was generally acknowledged that the committee observed procedural fairness during that inquiry and that her time as a politician has shown her to be an "independent and intellectual member" of the New South Wales Parliament. On 8 April 1999, she was elected as the President of the Council to replace the retiring President Virginia Chadwick. She was elected as President of the council on 11 May. As President, she continued to reduce the size and the scale of the traditional opening of State Parliament. For the 1999 opening, she axed the 29-gun salute and she invited just three ambassadors, one from Thailand and the other two from Cuba and Vietnam. That was criticised for being left leaning since the last two nations have communist governments. She further angered