Anna Burke

Anna Elizabeth Burke (born 1 January 1966) is an Australian former politician who served as the 28th speaker of the Australian House of Representatives from October 2012 to August 2013, and was Acting Speaker from May to October 2012. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), she was the member of parliament (MP) for the division of Chisholm from 1998 to 2016.

Burke was a trade union representative before being selected by the Australian Labor Party to stand for the seat of Chisholm in 1998. She served as deputy speaker of the Australian House of Representatives twice from 2008 to 2010 and again from 2011 until the resignation of Speaker Peter Slipper due to allegations of fraud and sexual harassment in 2012. She was the second woman to become Speaker and held the office until the 2013 federal election, in which the Rudd government was defeated.

While in parliament, both as a member of the government and the opposition, Burke campaigned against offshore processing and mandatory detention of refugees, policies all of the major parties supported at the time. Burke retired from politics at the 2016 federal election. She is a current member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and an Officer of the Order of Australia. Since leaving politics, Burke has also served on the boards of several foundations and companies. Provided by Wikipedia