Ли Риннон: Австралийский политик и сенатор

Australian politician (born 1951)

Lee Rhiannon (formerly O'Gorman, née Brown; born 30 May 1951) is a former Australian politician who was a Senator for New South Wales between July 2011 and August 2018. She was elected at the 2010 federal election, representing the Australian Greens. Prior to her election to the Federal Parliament, Rhiannon was a Greens NSW member of the New South Wales Legislative Council between 1999 and 2010.

Rhiannon contested and won a seat in the Australian Senate for New South Wales at the August 2010 federal election for the Australian Greens. She resigned from the NSW Legislative Council when the federal election was called, with a ballot of party members selecting Cate Faehrmann to fill the casual vacancy. Rhiannon was elected with 10.7 percent of the statewide vote. She would share the balance of power with eight other Greens senators from July 2011. At the December 2010 NSW Greens State Conference, a resolution was adopted in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. In support of the statement, Rhiannon said that the BDS campaign was "motivated by the universal principles of freedom, justice and equal rights". Rhiannon took up her seat in the Australian Senate on 1 July 2011 and in August 2011 it was reported that Rhiannon had refused to back away from the BDS campaign. In December 2011, the NSW Greens abandoned their official support for an international boycott against Israel and resolved to actively support the Australian Greens position. Rhiannon said that this "recognises the legitimacy of the BDS campaign as a political tactic and also recognises that there is a diversity of views in the community and the Greens." Announcing portfolio responsibilities for the Australian Greens in June 2011, Bob Brown allocated Rhiannon the following portfolios: Democracy; Local Government; Higher Education; Assisting on National Security; Women; International Aid and Development; Animal Welfare; and Forests. As of May 2014, Rhiannon held the following portfolios: Animal Welfare; Democracy & Local Government; Forests; Higher Education; International Aid & Development; Transport; Water & Murray Darling Basin. During July 2016, Bob Brown, a former Leader of the Australian Greens, called on Rhiannon to resign citing the "need for renewal". Brown labelled Rhiannon as a member of the "old guard" who caused the Greens' vote in New South Wales to lag behind in the 2016 Federal Election. Following the announcement of the 2016 Senate election results, other Senators negotiated, against Rhiannon's objections, to allocate her a three year rather than a six year Senate term. In June 2017 Rhiannon was suspended from the Federal Greens party room following an internal dispute over her opposition to the Federal Greens' support for the Turnbull government education funding changes. Most reports suggested the dispute centred on the manner of Rhiannon's dissent from the party position and the broader implications for the processes of decision making. In the lead up to preselection for the Greens NSW Senate position in 2017 it was reported that Rhiannon had breached party rules by using her Sydney electorate office as a point of contact for supporters. The allegations were contested by Rhiannon's supporters. She subsequently lost the first position on the Greens NSW Senate ticket for the 2019 Australian federal election to NSW Greens MLC Mehreen Faruqi. On 25 May 2018, Rhiannon announced she would resign as a senator in mid August, with Faruqi to be nominated to fill the resulting casual vacancy. Rhiannon gave her valedictory speech in the Senate on 13 August 2018, warning the Greens to "resist careerism, hierarchical control, bullying behaviour and associated leaking and backgrounding". She formally resigned her Senate position on 15 August 2018.

In 2018, Rhiannon was elected as a committee member of the SEARCH Foundation, the legal successor of the old CPA. In 2019, she held talks at the Marxism 2019 conference about the anti nuclear movement and the Prices and Incomes Accord. Rhiannon attended the Blockade IMARC protests in October 2019.