Jodeen Carney

Jodeen Terese Carney (born December 9, 1965) is an Australian politician. She has been a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since September 2001, representing the Alice Springs-based electorate of Araluen. She is the current Shadow Attorney-General, Shadow Minister for Justice and Shadow Minister for Health.

Carney was born in Melbourne, Victoria, and studied at Bendigo High School before commencing a law degree at the University of Melbourne. She graduated in 1989, and moved to Alice Springs the following year in order to do her articles. In 1990, she was admitted to legal practice, and worked as a solicitor for the next seven years. In 1997, she opened her own local practice, which she operated until gaining pre-selection to contest the Legislative Assembly seat of Araluen at the 2001 election.

While Araluen had been a reasonably safe seat for the Country Liberal Party, Carney faced a significant challenge from the Australian Labor Party candidate and two well-known independents. The CLP's vote dropped 27% from the 1997 election, the last contested by her long-running predecssor, Eric Poole, although she eventually achieved victory by 134 votes.

Carney had been a reasonably high-profile candidate, and she was appointed to the ministry immediately, taking on a number of portfolios, including tourism, correctional services and communications. While she often acted as a conservative voice in the assembly on many issues, advocating a particularly hard line on issues of law and order (including mandatory sentencing) and drug policy, this was not always the case, as she also clashed with her own party on several issues – most notably in 2003, when she crossed the floor to vote with the ALP in supporting a gay and lesbian law reform bill.

In mid-2003, Deputy Chief Minister Mike Reed resigned, and Carney was widely tipped as the favourite to succeed him. However, in a surprise result, she was defeated by Dr Richard Lim, which some commentators have placed down to her strong support for Opposition Leader Denis Burke, who was soon to be dumped for Terry Mills. She was nevertheless otherwise promoted soon afterwards, being made Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Justice, and then again in late 2004, being made Shadow Minister for Health.

While Araluen has been suggested as a seat that the ALP may be targeting at the forthcoming 2005 election, prominent analyst Antony Green has predicted that Carney will both retain her seat and increase her majority.