Verity Firth
Verity Firth is the niece of Meredith Burgmann. She has a law degree and has worked as a solicitor with Slater & Gordon, a labour law firm. Until 2001 she was a staffer for MP Anthony Albanese. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party, was branch secretary of the Glebe branch, and worked as the Sussex Street’s Campaign Co-ordinator. She has been a Board member of the Law and Justice Foundation. Firth is a prolific writer on the Australian Labor Party and Labour history and published Power and Protest: Movements for Change in Australian Society in 1993.
Labor’s National Policy Forum
In 2018 the Left members of the ALP National Policy Forum from NSW were Sinead Simpkins, Cameron Murphy, Verity Firth, Nuatali Nelmes.[1]
UTS Zoom event
with Verity Firth, The Hon. Linda Burney MP, Alison Whittaker and Professor Thalia Anthony Friday, 26 June 2020
Says Firth:
- Professor Thalia Anthony is a Professor with the UTS Law Faculty. She is an expert in criminal law, and procedure and Indigenous people and the law, specialising in Indigenous criminalisation and Indigenous community justice mechanisms. Thalia has provided advice and research to the High Court, the United Nations, the Attorney-General's Indigenous Justice Clearinghouse, as well as to Royal Commissions, parliamentary inquiries, Aboriginal Justice Agreements and coronial inquests. Thalia also regularly writes articles in The Conversation, some of which we will be quoting from today..[2]
2016 NSW Labor State Conference Fringe Events
- The 2016 NSW Labor State Conference Fringe Events Program was the biggest yet. Our Fringe Program saw events hosted by many different politicians, action networks and other domestic and international political figures. Over 800 Labor members, delegates and observers, participated in the Fringe Events Program.
- Labor Gives A Gonski Senator Sam Dastyari, Verity Firth, Maurie Mulheron, and Jihad Dib MP, leading figures in education, discussed the Gonski funding reforms and why this model is crucial to improving the educational outcomes for all Aussie kids.[3]
Young Labor Left and Labor Left women
Young Labor Left - NSW · June 3, 2016 Sydney, NSW, Australia ·
Some Young Labor Left members spent tonight with an incredible group of Labor Left women: Linda Burney, Penny Sharpe MLC, Verity Firth, Meredith Burgmann, Jenny McAllister, Carmel Tebbutt and, of course, the newest Senator Malarndirri McCarthy! What an inspiration.
David Pink, Thomas Matthew, Casey Thompson, Shannen Potter, Oliver Plunkett.
Young Labor
Chloe Smith, Verity Firth, Penny Sharpe, Issy Hellig.
LEAN meeting
Young Labor Left - NSW April 2014.
It was great to be at LEAN Australia - Labor Environment Action Network's event last night to discuss Labor's response to climate change with Shadow Climate Change Minister Mark Butler and Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Tanya Plibersek.
Erin Watt, Verity Firth, Tanya Plibersek
Labor wipeout
LABOR is preparing to fight a rearguard action in Nathan Rees's seat of Toongabbie amid fears virtually all the senior leadership talent in the Left will be swept away at the election.
The Left has assigned its best campaigners to defend Toongabbie, sources saying there is a big risk of the former premier being unseated on March 26, 2011.
Luke Whitington, a former star of Young Labor and principal policy adviser to Small Business Minister Peter Primrose, will direct the Rees campaign.
Felix Eldridge, one of Sussex Street's key Left organisers, will also focus on Toongabbie, where Mr Rees's margin of 14.5 per cent is seen as desperately thin in the current anti-Labor climate.
Having been shielded by Labor's head office from a rank-and-file preselection vote, Mr Rees is expected to struggle to mobilise branch members in the campaign. Some of his colleagues say he has spent too much time settling old scores.
Wiser heads in the Left have repeatedly urged Nathan to let the grudge go, put his bum down and focus on resurrecting his career, a Labor source said. He's ignored that advice and now he's playing catch-up.
A senior Left source denied there would be significantly more resources for the campaign than for other Labor electorates in Sydney on similar margins.
Party sources said the seats of Marrickville, held by Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt, and Balmain, held by Education Minister Verity Firth, have been all but written off.
Another under pressure is Roads Minister David Borger, whose margin of 11.1 per cent in Granville would not save him in an expected statewide swing against Labor of at least 15 per cent.
Mr Borger, a former mayor of Parramatta, is seen as future leadership material for the Left, so his campaign will also be heavily backed by head office.
If he is punted by voters on March 26 along with Ms Firth and Ms Tebbutt, the ranks of the Left will be severely depleted.
If that happens, Luke Foley, the former assistant general secretary of the ALP, who entered the upper house in June, would come to the fore, along with Community Services Minister Linda Burney.
There is no doubt that Luke Foley has real leadership potential even though he hasn't been in Parliament long, a senior Labor source said.
Another party source said: He will play a big role in the situation where we are in opposition.[4]
Launched SEARCH book
"Cries from the Workplace" 20 stories, 20 women: Stories of migrant women workers in Sydney".
Launch by NSW Minister for Women Ms Verity Firth MLA.
Tuesday 8th April 2008, 12 noon to 1pm, Jubilee Room, NSW Parliament House.
- The booklet is important because Asian women are speaking for themselves about the daily reality in their workplaces. This is not academic, not written in formal or professional language. The women describe their experiences in their own words. Many of the stories were written first in Chinese or Vietnamese and then translated.
- The women have decided to tell their stories and speak out because they say it is time for change. “We want this country to do better when it comes to looking after people who are struggling at the bottom end of society”, says Hong Nguyen from the Asian Women at Work Action Group.
- Production of the booklet has been funded by Revesby Workers Club, the Uniting Church 2% for Development Fund and the SEARCH Foundation, through Asian Women at Work Inc.
- Amanda Jackson, from the Uniting Church 2% Fund says, “the stories in this booklet will make readers feel uncomfortable because they show how many migrant women in our city are underpaid, bullied and exploited. I hope the dignified voices of these women will be heard and their call for equality and a fair go is answered.”
Media Contacts: Debbie Carstens; Lina Cabaero.[5]
Ranatunga connection
November 19, 2010 DNA MP and former cricketer Arjuna Ranatunga was in Sydney last week to talk about everything but the great game, Australian media reports. Ranatunga, met with Australian politicians of all stripes, including Balmain MP Verity Firth, as part of his attempts to highlight what he calls the breakdown of democracy in his home.
He told Firth widespread corruption and the ‘unlawful’ court martial of Opposition Leader and former general Sarath Fonseka had crippled the country.
Fonseka is serving a three-year prison term in Sri Lanka after being convicted of participating in corrupt deals while he was head of the military.
According to Ranatunga, the charges against the general are purely an act of “revenge” by the government against General Fonseka for his decision to leave the military to enter politics.
He also condemned the current government’s decision to remove the two-term limit previously imposed on the presidency.
Born into a political family, Ranatunga was previously part of the government in Sri Lanka, along with his brother and father.
He said he broke from the government and his family because he did not think current president Mahinda Rajapakshe was doing enough to stamp out corruption.
Along with Australian-based Jagath Bandara and Sri Lankan MP Anura Dissanayaka, Ranatunga has helped establish the umbrella group Campaign For Democracy In Sri Lanka to highlight what he believes are the nation’s flawed political processes.[6]
