Kelvin was born in, grew up in, and still lives in Melbourne.
After completing degrees in Arts and Law at the University of Melbourne and graduating with the Supreme Court Prize in Law, Kelvin worked in a number of public sector positions, including as a Research Officer for Senator Gareth Evans.
He was elected as an Australian Labor Party Councillor for the City of Coburg in 1981 and was re-elected in 1982 and 1985. He served twice as Deputy Mayor.
In 1988 he was elected as Member for Pascoe Vale in the Victorian Parliament. He was Member for Pascoe Vale from 1988-1996 and served in a range of Shadow Ministerial Portfolios.
In 1996 he was elected as Member for Wills in the Federal Parliament. He served as Member for Wills for over 20 years, from 1996-2016. This service included many years in a variety of Shadow Ministerial roles. In 2013 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Trade and later Parliamentary Secretary for Schools.
He retired from the Federal Parliament at the 2016 Federal Election. In 2017 he started work again as the Campaign Organiser for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, and in 2018 worked for the City of Brimbank as their Advocacy Strategist. In 2017 he was awarded the Alan Missen Medal for Integrity in Serving Democracy by the Accountability Roundtable.
In 2019 he resigned from the Labor Party, and now works as Chief of Staff for the Sustainable Australia Party’s Victorian MP Clifford Hayes
THE HONOURABLE KELVIN THOMSON has been a guest on 1 episode.
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Episode 11: To politik or not to politik, that is the question - with Kelvin Thomson
November 4th, 2020 | Season 1 | 41 mins 52 secs
clifford hayes, kelvin thomson, politics, sap, spa, sustainable australia party, sustainable population australia
Another month, another bunch of elections. In Australia, we’ve just had the ACT elections, QLD elections, and Victoria council elections. I think that’s it. Oh yeah, there’s a small North American country having a federal election counting ballots as we speak. You may have heard about it.
Post-Growth still exists on the fringe and for most of us on the fringe voting can be a frustrating exercise choosing between who will lead us through several more years of growth on a finite planet. It can be even more frustrating for independents and minor parties who advocate for something better than the status quo – a seeming endless uphill climb full of long hours, campaign trails, etc. This being the case, is it better to opt out or opt in? PGAP host Michael Bayliss explores this question further with the Honourable Kelvin Thomson.