Shayne Murphy
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Shayne Michael Murphy (born 8 January 1952) is an independent member of the Australian Senate, representing Tasmania. He represented the Australian Labor Party from his election in 1993 to 2001, when he left the party and stood on as an independent. He was born in Queenstown, Tasmania.
Murphy did not attend university, and became a shearer. He became involved with the union movement, rising to become State Secretary of the Tasmanian branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. He was also the secretary of the ALP's Industry Policy Committee in Tasmania.
In his time in the Senate, Murphy has been an active member of Senate committees, sitting on more than twenty over his three terms. He currently sits on the Legal and Constitutional: Legislation Committee, the Community Affairs: Legislation and References Committees. He attributed his resignation from the ALP to their policies on logging.
In the 2001-04 Parliament, Murphy shared the balance of power with Senators Len Harris, Brian Harradine and Senator Meg Lees, who left the Australian Democrats in 2002. This meant that the government could pass legislation through the Senate only by winning the support of these Senators. Murphy often voted with the government to pass key pieces of legislation. An example of this was Education Minister Brendan Nelson's higher education reforms, which allowed universities to drastically increase fees.
But Murphy also played a role in rejecting some legislation. In March 2004, Murphy combined with Harradine to block the full privatisation of two-thirds state owned telecommunications company Telstra. Murphy was defeated at the 2004 election. His term will expire on 30 June, 2005.