Michael Organ

Organ was born in Bulli, New South Wales. His mother was a hospital domestic and his father was a brickworker.^[2] He studied geology at the University of Wollongong and completed a post-graduate diploma in archive administration at the University of New South Wales, where he subsequently took up a post as an archivist.^[2] He was employed at the University of Wollongong library, as an archivist (1996–2002) and, as of 5 May 2013^[update], manager, repository services until 1 November 2020.^[3]

Three months prior to the Cunningham by-election, he unsuccessfully contested the local government election for the lord mayoralship of Wollongong.

In 2005, Organ discovered a print of the 1927 film Metropolis containing missing scenes.^[4] This print was used to create a restored version of the film, which re-premiered in 2010.

He has four children, Andrew (b. 1991), Kyle (b. 1993), India (b. 2008) and Emma (b. 2011).^[2]

The federal division of Cunningham has been a safe Labor seat since its creation in 1949.^[5] On 16 August 2002, the sitting member, Dr Stephen Martin, unexpectedly resigned, causing a by-election.

The ALP preselected a TAFE teacher, Sharon Bird, by decision of the party executive rather than the usual rank-and-file nomination procedure, and the Liberal party opted not to contest the by-election.

Organ was endorsed by the South Coast Labour Council and received strong preference flows from two popular independent candidates, David Moulds and Peter Wilson. He gained 23% of the primary vote and 52% after allocation of preferences, defeating Bird and becoming the first Green elected to the House of Representatives, at the same time making Cunningham a marginal seat.^[6]

During his term, he was one of three Greens federal parliamentarians (with Senator Bob Brown and Senator Kerry Nettle).

Organ ran for a full term as member for Cunningham in the 2004 general election. He received 20.1% of the primary vote, placing third behind the Labor (39.6%) and Liberal (28.8%) candidates. This was a swing of 13.5% to the Greens compared to the 2001 federal election, but a 2.9% swing away from Organ compared to the 2002 by-election. Organ was eliminated on the ninth count, with his voters' preferences flowing overwhelmingly to Labor's Sharon Bird, allowing her to win with a 61.5% two-party-preferred vote.^[7]

He was again selected as the Greens candidate for Cunningham in the 2007 federal election, but failed to regain the seat from Bird, who was re-elected on first preferences. Organ won 14.6% of the primary vote.^[8]

For the 2022 election, Organ was preselected as Greens candidate for rural New South Wales seat of Riverina. The seat is a change from the coast, centred on the agricultural region of Riverina, including the towns Wagga Wagga and Parkes.^[9]

In his first speech, Organ credited his win to community opposition to a planned development by the Stockland Trust Group at Sandon Point.^[10] The campaign included a tent embassy by the local Dharawal nation centred around the burial site of the Kuradji (similar to a shaman),^[11] and a community blockade of around 300 people which was confronted by a force of around sixty police officers and police dogs.^[12] Organ said that the development was inappropriate, threatened European and Indigenous cultural heritage, threatened wetlands and a green corridor.^[10]

Organ supports free tertiary education and opposes the privatisation of public utilities like Telstra, as well as what he calls "two decades of Canberra's obsession with economic rationalism".^[10]

In his first speech, Organ condemned the Iraq War as unjust, in breach of United Nations resolutions, and likely to lead to higher risks of terrorism.^[10]

Organ co-authored a Greens policy on Tibet, which supported the right of Tibetans to self-determination and the Dalai Lama's Middle Way approach.^[13] He participated to the Save Tibet Asia Pacific Forum in Tokyo 1 –3 July 2008.^[14]

Organ was the only member of the House of Representatives to propose anti-discrimination amendments to the Howard Government's amendments to the Marriage Act in 2004.

• List of Australian Greens parliamentarians
• 2002 Cunningham by-election

• Michael Organ personal web site (2021)