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Nick Xenophon
Nick Xenophon (né Nicholas Xenophou; Greek: Νικόλαος Ξενοφού, romanized: Nikólaos Ksenofoú; born 29 January 1959) is an Australian lawyer and former politician who was a Senator for South Australia from 2008 until 2017. As a centrist, populist, independent politician, he twice shared the balance of power in the Australian Senate (from 2008 to 2010, 2014 to 2017). Xenophon was widely regarded as being among the most powerful politicians in Australia and among the most electorally successful independent politicians in Australian history, eventually able to form a political party: Nick Xenophon Team federally, and Nick Xenophon's SA-BEST in the state of South Australia.
From 1997 to 2007, he was a member of the South Australian Legislative Council, serving as an independent on a No Pokies policy platform. When the Nick Xenophon Team changed its name to Centre Alliance, Xenophon himself ceased to be directly involved with the party. Xenophon initially focused on his central anti-gambling policy, but came to advocate for other issues in federal parliament such as civil liberties, defence, education, foreign policy, health, infrastructure, manufacturing, national security, and regional affairs. Xenophon failed in his central mission to have poker machines curbed or eliminated in a lasting way, but was instrumental in the Rudd government's repeal of WorkChoices legislation and the passage of the economic stimulus package, as well as the Abbott government's repeal of the Clean Energy Act 2011. Additionally, Xenophon was pivotal in the obstruction of the Abbott government's 2014 austerity budget, the plan to build next generation submarines overseas, and the Pyne higher education reforms.
In October 2017, Xenophon resigned from the Australian Senate to contest a seat in the House of Assembly at the 2018 South Australian state election. Polls suggested that Xenophon's party may have been able to form government, however by election day support had collapsed, and Xenophon was not elected to a lower house seat. He tried to re-enter the Senate in 2022 but received less than 3 percent of the vote, the lowest performance at an election since his first statewide result in 1997.
Nick Xenophon was born Nicholas Xenophou in Adelaide, South Australia, to Theo Xenophou from Cyprus, and Georgia from Greece as the oldest of two children. Xenophon attended Prince Alfred College from 1965 to 1976 where he achieved three As in English, Mathematics and Economics, and his father was involved with college fundraising. He studied for a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Adelaide. From 1976 until 1981, he was a member of the Liberal Party of Australia and the Young Liberals. In his first year, Xenophon was elected on the Adelaide University Liberal Club ticket to On Dit student magazine. In his university days Xenophon was a reactionary conservative who held numerous views against women's liberation, gay rights, squatters' rights, Marxism, the anti-Apartheid movement, the anti-nuclear movement and the anti-free traders (all views he later departed from). At the end of his eighteen-month term, Xenophon wrote as a whistleblower in On Dit that the Young Liberals had rigged the 1976–77 vote in order to secure the unlikely victory of their editing team. According to Xenophon, the party politics of the On Dit incident disenchanted him, although some Labor members maintain that he considered joining the Australian Labor Party while at university.
In 2015, the publishers of former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard's 2014 memoir, My Story, retracted an allegation and made a public apology after writing that Xenophon had been "infamously excluded from university for a period as punishment for stuffing a ballot box full of voting papers he had somehow procured".
In 1982 and 1983, Xenophon worked as a lawyer in the private practice of Jacob van Dissel. In 1984, van Dissel gave Xenophon the personal injury part of his practice, enabling Xenophon to become principal of his new firm, Xenophon & Co. Lawyers. The firm dealt primarily with workers compensation and personal injury claims on a no-win-no-fee basis.
In 1994 and 1997, Xenophon served as President of the South Australian branch of the Australian Plaintiff Lawyers' Association. During this time, he also taught law at the University of South Australia, where his future political opponent Christopher Pyne was among his students.
In 2019, the Australian Financial Review reported that his law firm was representing Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, who Xenophon claims have "been treated incredibly unfairly". He also represented the military whistleblower, David McBride.
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Nick Xenophon
Nick Xenophon (né Nicholas Xenophou; Greek: Νικόλαος Ξενοφού, romanized: Nikólaos Ksenofoú; born 29 January 1959) is an Australian lawyer and former politician who was a Senator for South Australia from 2008 until 2017. As a centrist, populist, independent politician, he twice shared the balance of power in the Australian Senate (from 2008 to 2010, 2014 to 2017). Xenophon was widely regarded as being among the most powerful politicians in Australia and among the most electorally successful independent politicians in Australian history, eventually able to form a political party: Nick Xenophon Team federally, and Nick Xenophon's SA-BEST in the state of South Australia.
From 1997 to 2007, he was a member of the South Australian Legislative Council, serving as an independent on a No Pokies policy platform. When the Nick Xenophon Team changed its name to Centre Alliance, Xenophon himself ceased to be directly involved with the party. Xenophon initially focused on his central anti-gambling policy, but came to advocate for other issues in federal parliament such as civil liberties, defence, education, foreign policy, health, infrastructure, manufacturing, national security, and regional affairs. Xenophon failed in his central mission to have poker machines curbed or eliminated in a lasting way, but was instrumental in the Rudd government's repeal of WorkChoices legislation and the passage of the economic stimulus package, as well as the Abbott government's repeal of the Clean Energy Act 2011. Additionally, Xenophon was pivotal in the obstruction of the Abbott government's 2014 austerity budget, the plan to build next generation submarines overseas, and the Pyne higher education reforms.
In October 2017, Xenophon resigned from the Australian Senate to contest a seat in the House of Assembly at the 2018 South Australian state election. Polls suggested that Xenophon's party may have been able to form government, however by election day support had collapsed, and Xenophon was not elected to a lower house seat. He tried to re-enter the Senate in 2022 but received less than 3 percent of the vote, the lowest performance at an election since his first statewide result in 1997.
Nick Xenophon was born Nicholas Xenophou in Adelaide, South Australia, to Theo Xenophou from Cyprus, and Georgia from Greece as the oldest of two children. Xenophon attended Prince Alfred College from 1965 to 1976 where he achieved three As in English, Mathematics and Economics, and his father was involved with college fundraising. He studied for a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Adelaide. From 1976 until 1981, he was a member of the Liberal Party of Australia and the Young Liberals. In his first year, Xenophon was elected on the Adelaide University Liberal Club ticket to On Dit student magazine. In his university days Xenophon was a reactionary conservative who held numerous views against women's liberation, gay rights, squatters' rights, Marxism, the anti-Apartheid movement, the anti-nuclear movement and the anti-free traders (all views he later departed from). At the end of his eighteen-month term, Xenophon wrote as a whistleblower in On Dit that the Young Liberals had rigged the 1976–77 vote in order to secure the unlikely victory of their editing team. According to Xenophon, the party politics of the On Dit incident disenchanted him, although some Labor members maintain that he considered joining the Australian Labor Party while at university.
In 2015, the publishers of former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard's 2014 memoir, My Story, retracted an allegation and made a public apology after writing that Xenophon had been "infamously excluded from university for a period as punishment for stuffing a ballot box full of voting papers he had somehow procured".
In 1982 and 1983, Xenophon worked as a lawyer in the private practice of Jacob van Dissel. In 1984, van Dissel gave Xenophon the personal injury part of his practice, enabling Xenophon to become principal of his new firm, Xenophon & Co. Lawyers. The firm dealt primarily with workers compensation and personal injury claims on a no-win-no-fee basis.
In 1994 and 1997, Xenophon served as President of the South Australian branch of the Australian Plaintiff Lawyers' Association. During this time, he also taught law at the University of South Australia, where his future political opponent Christopher Pyne was among his students.
In 2019, the Australian Financial Review reported that his law firm was representing Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, who Xenophon claims have "been treated incredibly unfairly". He also represented the military whistleblower, David McBride.
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