Six Jewish candidates and counting
AJN STAFF- Australian Jewish News
NOMINATIONS have closed for the 2007 Federal Election and The AJN has counted at least six Jewish candidates contesting the November 24 poll.
Quirkiest is Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, a scientist and doctor who holds the Julius Sumner Miller Fellowship at the University of Sydney, and who is best known as a media commentator on scientific issues.
Dr Kruszelnicki is running for the Senate in New South Wales, for a party called the Climate Change Coalition, and has already attracted controversy by saying that clean coal is a complete myth.
The other five known Jewish candidates are running for either of the two major parties.
The Liberals have one Jewish candidate, Adam Held, who is running for Melbourne Ports. He is up against Melbourne Ports incumbent Michael Danby.
Danby, Australia’s only Jewish member of parliament, has a number of Labor Party associates this year.
Former mayor of Waverley George Newhouse is contesting Australia’s most Jewish seat, Sydney’s Wentworth, while Mark Dreyfus, a queen’s counsel (QC), who has plenty of experience working behind the scenes for the ALP in Victoria, is almost certain to win the seat of Isaacs.
The final Jewish ALP candidate is Sam Miszkowski, who faces a difficult task in the blue-ribbon Queensland seat of Moncrieff.
Two other ALP hopefuls have strong Jewish links. Shadow health minister and the current member for Gellibrand Nicola Roxon’s father was Jewish, while Mike Kelly in the much-scrutinised seat of Eden-Monaro is married to a Jewish woman and has children who identify as Jewish.
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