Shayne Neumann

Shayne Kenneth Neumann (born 26 August 1961) is an Australian politician. He is an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2007, representing the Division of Blair. On 25 March 2013, Newman was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General and Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing.

Upon the defeat of the Rudd Government at the 2013 federal election, Neumann was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Ageing under new leader Bill Shorten.

Neumann was the Labor candidate for Blair at the 2004 federal election, and was heavily defeated by sitting Liberal member Cameron Thompson who received 61.21 percent of the two-party-preferred vote. Blair was considered a Liberal safe seat at the time.

Neumann sought a rematch in 2007. This time, he was aided by two factors. Firstly, a redistribution of the electoral boundaries, finalised in 2006, pushed Blair further into Ipswich while cutting out the conservative-leaning rural towns of Esk and Kingaroy, roughly halving Thompson's majority. Secondly, there was a big Labor resurgence across the country at the 2007 federal election under the leadership of Kevin Rudd. This resurgence was at its greatest in Rudd's home state of Queensland. Neumann won the seat on a swing of 10.17 percent.

Neumann was re-elected in 2010 with only a modest swing against him. He was re-elected in 2013, actually picking up a small swing in his favour as Labor lost government. In 2016, Neumann technically made Blair a safe Labor seat by taking 59.2 percent of the two-party vote.

Neumann supported Kevin Rudd in the Australian Labor Party leadership spill on 26 June 2013. He stated that "it was a really tough decision because I thought it was in the best interests of our state and of the people in my electorate." In Labor's October 2013 leadership spill, Neumann supported Bill Shorten.

Political positions

Neumann has been described as part of the Labor Right, and as such he was opposed to same sex marriage until late 2015. Neumann had publicly stated his opposition to same sex marriage in August 2011, August 2013, and June 2015. In December 2015, Neumann confirmed his newfound support of same sex marriage. In August 2016, Neumann said he was against the proposed plebiscite on same sex marriage.

Neumann has been against pushes to repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. He said the laws protect free speech, but also protect against racial hatred.