Read the complete write-up of Richard Marles net worth, age, wife, children, height, family, parents, salary, politics, party as well as other information you need to know.
Introduction
Richard Marles is an Australian politician who has been deputy leader of the Labor Party since 2019 and is due to become Deputy Prime Minister of Australia; he has been Deputy Leader of the Opposition since May 2019. He has also served as a Member of the Australian Parliament for Corio in Victoria since the 2007 election.
Marles was a Parliamentary Secretary from 2009 to 2013 and served as Minister for Trade in the second Rudd Government from June to September 2013. He was a member of the Shadow Cabinet from Labor’s defeat in the 2013 election to their victory at the 2022 election.
Early life
| Name | Richard Marles |
| Net Worth | $5 million |
| Occupation | Politician, Former lawyer |
| Height | 1.83m |
| Age | 54 years |
Richard Donald Marles was born on July 13, 1967 (age 54 years) in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. He is the son of Donald Marles, his father is a former headmaster of Trinity Grammar School, and Fay Marles Pearce, his mother is Victoria’s first Equal Opportunity Commissioner and later Chancellor of the University of Melbourne.
Marles was educated at Geelong Grammar School and the University of Melbourne where he resided at Ormond College. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Laws with Honours. He joined the Melbourne University Labor Club in his first week at university. He was also the General Secretary of the National Union of Students in 1989.
He started his career as a solicitor with Melbourne industrial law firm Slater and Gordon. In 1994, he became a legal officer for the Transport Workers Union (TWU). He was elected TWU National Assistant Secretary four years later. In 2000 he joined Australia’s peak national union body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), as assistant secretary, remaining in the position until 2007.
Political career
Richard Marles was nominated in March 2006 for Labor preselection against the sitting member for Corio, Gavan O’Connor, as part of a challenge to several sitting members organized by the right-wing Labor Unity faction of the party. On the local ballot, Marles polled 57% of the vote, and his endorsement was then confirmed by the party’s public office selection committee.
Marles was elected member for Corio on 24 November 2007 in the election that returned the Labor Party to office under the leadership of Kevin Rudd. From February 2008 to June 2009 he was chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs.
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In June 2009 Marles was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry. He retained his seat in the 2010 election and was sworn in as Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs in the First Gillard Ministry on 14 September 2010. In July 2011, Marles became the first Australian member of parliament to visit Wallis and Futuna.
He arrived in Wallis and Futuna to attend a ceremony with King Kapiliele Faupala in Mata-Utu marking the 50th anniversary of the islands’ status as a French overseas collectivity. Marles had previously visited New Caledonia in October 2010 and French Polynesia in March 2011.
In the ministerial reshuffle of 2 March 2012, Marles was given the additional role of Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs. On 21 March 2013 he resigned from these roles after expressing support for Kevin Rudd to challenge Julia Gillard for the leadership; a challenge that did not eventuate.
Richard Marles was appointed in June 2013 as the Minister for Trade and a member of the Cabinet, succeeding Craig Emerson, who resigned following the June 2013 leadership spill that saw Kevin Rudd defeat Julia Gillard for leadership of the Labor Party.
Marles was appointed Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection under opposition leader Bill Shorten after the ALP’s defeat at the 2013 federal election. In February 2016, he began co-hosting the weekly television program Pyne & Marles on Sky News Live with Liberal MP Christopher Pyne.
He had his portfolio changed after the 2016 election, becoming Shadow Minister for Defence. He has been cited as holding pro-U.S. views and as a “somewhat of a hawk”.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition
In May 2019, after Labor lost the 2019 federal election, it was reported that Richard Marles would stand for the deputy leadership of the party, and would likely be elected unopposed following Clare O’Neil’s decision not to run. He was formally endorsed as deputy to Anthony Albanese on 30 May 2019 and selected the portfolio of Defence in the shadow cabinet.
Following a shadow cabinet reshuffle in January 2021, Richard Marles was placed in charge of a new “super portfolio” relating to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, encompassing a “broad brief across national reconstruction, jobs, skills, small business, and science”.
Political stance
Richard Marles is a senior figure in his state’s Labor Right faction. Marles supports the turning back of asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat and a Pacific Solution for the resettlement of refugees.
Marles was supportive of an Australian War Memorial commemorating Operation Sovereign Borders navy personnel who undertook activities to stop asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat. That position was slammed by several Labor Left MPs as well as the Greens.
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He is critical of the government’s handling of the future submarine program and says that the project has “profoundly compromised Australia’s National security”. Marles otherwise supports the bipartisan consensus on national defense matters.
On an interview on Sky News on 20 February 2019, Richard Marles stated that it would be “a good thing” if the thermal coal market in Australia collapsed. He later back tracked on this statement, saying that his “attack on coal was tone-deaf”.
Following the 2019 Federal Election, Richard Marles maintained that public funds should not be used to subsidize coal, saying “a Labor government is not going to put a cent into subsidizing coal-fired power”, and the market should be allowed to make its own decisions, while also saying that if a private company decided to push forward with a mine and gained the necessary approvals that Labor would not stand in its way.
Salary
Richard Marles’s salary for 2022 ranges from $162,574 to $475,483, but with bonuses, benefits and various other compensation, he made significantly more than his salary in the year 2020. After the 2022 elections, Marles became a prominent appointee in the new Anthony Albanese government.
Wife
Richard Marles is married to Rachel Schutze and they have three children together. His wife is a businessperson and the couple lives in a private house in Geelong with their children and relatives. However, Marles was married to his first wife Lisa Neville and they had a child together. As of 2022, He has four children, one from his second marriage and one from his first marriage to ex-wife Lisa Neville, who was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 2002.
Richard Marles net worth
How much is Richard Marles worth? Richard Marles net worth is estimated at around $5 million. His salary is $250,000+ and his main source of income is from his career as a politician. Marles successful career has earned him some luxurious lifestyles and some fancy car trips. He is one of the influential politicians in Australia.
