NSW:Labor defends Cherie Burton appointment

AAP General News (Australia)
04-08-2011
NSW:Labor defends Cherie Burton appointment

By Vincent Morello

SYDNEY, April 8 AAP - The NSW Labor opposition has defended its decision to name an
MP who lost her driver's licence after being caught up in a drink driving scandal as its
portfolio spokesperson for healthy lifestyles.

The coalition government branded the decision, which was revealed on Friday as part
of Labor's front bench announcement, as "strange".

But Opposition Leader John Robertson said Cherie Burton, who will also represent volunteering
and fair trading in Labor's electorally depleted ranks, deserved a second chance.

"Cherie Burton is somebody who grew up in housing commissions," he told journalists.

"She was one of the youngest people to enter our parliament. She's a young mum with
two young kids, and she's earned a second chance."

When Labor was in government, Ms Burton was elevated to the front bench as housing
minister in 2005 before vacating the post after the 2007 election to sit on the back bench.

In 2010, she failed to take a breath test when stopped for a random roadside test and
lost her licence for one year.

The government's Special Minister of State Chris Hartcher said Ms Burton belonged on
the back bench.

"It's a strange message to send out to people," he told journalists.

"Someone who was obviously prepared to drink and then drive and this person has been
held up as healthy lifestyles (spokesperson)."

Labor's new 15-member cabinet will cover 40 shadow portfolios, with most of the MPs
responsible for three or four separate areas.

It comes after the party's resounding election defeat on March 26, which slashed its
caucus to just 34 MPs from 69 upper and lower house members in government.

"We are a smaller team but we will work twice as hard to hold the O'Farrell government
to account," Mr Robertson said.

"These are people who are all smart, they're talented, they are energetic and they're
ready to get on with the job."

Of the 15 shadow ministers named, nine have served in past Labor administrations.

The remaining six are fresh faces, some of whom have taken top portfolios such as health,
transport and the environment.

As was widely expected, respected former community services minister Linda Burney was
unopposed in her run for Labor's deputy leader.

"I'm incredibly proud and I thought long and hard about whether I had the capacity
and I was the right person to take on this role," Ms Burney told journalists.

She will also have responsibility for planning, infrastructure and heritage, sport
and recreation, the Hunter and the Central Coast.

Former premier Nathan Rees, who was rolled by Labor's right faction 16 months ago,
returns to the front bench as opposition spokesman for police, emergency services and
the arts.

"It's great to be back in the service," Mr Rees said.

Premier Barry O'Farrell said the choice of Macquarie Fields MP and paediatrician Andrew
McDonald was better late than never.

"We went through a procession of disastrous health ministers," he told reporters on Friday.

"It's only in opposition that Andrew McDonald finally gets a gig that he should have
gotten years ago."

But Mr Hartcher also said that keeping nine former ministers on the front bench showed
Labor has failed to heed the message from voters after its historic defeat.

"To have these sort of people now presented once again to the people of NSW as the
people who should be running NSW shows that Labor has learnt nothing," he said.

Former ageing and disability minister Peter Primrose was the only frontbencher from
the previous government not to secure a shadow portfolio.

Michael Daley, formerly police minister, has become Labor's treasury spokesman, former
deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt takes on education and training while former industrial
relations minister Paul Lynch secured the opposition roles of justice and attorney-general.

Mr Robertson added the roles of spokesman for western Sydney and the Illawarra to his
responsibilities.

The MPs' first act as shadow ministers was to visit a shopping mall in Hurstville in
the southern Sydney electorate of Oatley, which Labor lost in the election, to greet voters.

AAP vpm/klm/apm

KEYWORD: LABOR NSW WRAP (WITH FACTBOX)

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