Read: Gail Williams’article from The Sunday Times Magazine about Steve Irons MP
Steve’s early life and entry into politics.
Steve grew up in a large family. His foster father, David, was a local church minister and his foster mother, Mary, a social worker at a hospital. His parents always instilled in Steve that investing in people from all walks of life was the key to building a strong local community.
As Parliament’s only former ward of the state, Steve has an important role in ongoing work for the Forgotten Australians and former child migrants and is well respected by all parties for his bipartisan work on this social policy issue.
With 30 years experience in small business, Steve completed an apprenticeship as an electrician after high school and prior to moving to Western Australia. Later, Steve started work in 1981 for a national company in Welshpool doing clerical and factory work. In 1983 Steve became Sales Manager and went on to achieve record sales. In 1996 Steve became the owner of that company.
Over a long period of time Steve has made many connections with the Kewdale-Welshpool industrial hub, Steve knows there are many great businesses and workers in this hub as it is one of the last true manufacturing areas left in the state, as well as being the premier freight centre.
As a young footballer at East Perth Football Club and a former Colts coach at Perth Football Club, Steve learned teamwork is the key to success on any of life’s playing fields and that you only get out of life what you put into it. A former Director of Junior Development at Perth Football Club, Steve is proud to pass on these valuable lessons to young people in the community.
From 2004, Steve as a single parent became the custodian of his son, Jarrad, and experienced many of the issues families and single parents face. Steve married Cheryle in 2011 and is grateful for the enormous support she provides him working in the electorate, particularly on issues surrounding women’s health.
In Parliament Steve is Chair of the Health Committee and co-founder of the Parliamentary Friends of Senior and Ageing (PFSA), Steve takes a special interest in these issues.
Steve was noted by political commentators in Australia as the only Liberal to defeat a sitting Labor Member at the 2007 Federal election winning the seat of Swan by 164 votes (0.19%). After a boundary redistribution made Swan a notionally Labor seat and in one of the most high profile results of the 2010 election, Steve successfully won the seat of Swan by 4019 votes (2.53%). At the 2013 election Steve retained the seat winning by 10685 votes (6.53%) after a 4% swing, the best result for a Liberal candidate since 1958.