Joel Fitzgibbon

Joel Andrew Fitzgibbon, born January 16, 1962, in Bellingen, New South Wales, is a retired Australian politician who represented the electorate of Hunter in the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2022. He served as Defence Minister from 2007 to 2009 in Kevin Rudd's first government, overseeing the release of the 2009 Defence White Paper, and later held the agriculture portfolio briefly in 2013, serving as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for about two and a half months in the Second Rudd Government before Labor's defeat at that year's election. He served as Chief Government Whip from 2010 to 2013 during Julia Gillard's government and was a member of the Labor Party's Right faction before his retirement from parliament.