Jonathon Duniam

Biography

Jonathon Duniam is an Australian politician and member of the Liberal Party. He was born in Launceston, Tasmania, on 31 December 1982, and is the son of Mary and Roy Duniam. His mother has served on the Waratah-Wynyard Council, and his maternal grandmother, Iris Graham, was the first woman elected to the Burnie City Council and an Australian Labor Party candidate for the Tasmanian Legislative Council. Duniam grew up in Somerset, Tasmania, attending Stella Maris Catholic Primary School and Marist Regional College in Burnie.

Duniam holds degrees in Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Tasmania, but has never practised law. Prior to entering parliament, he worked as a political staffer for over a decade, including as deputy chief of staff to Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman.

In April 2016, Duniam was preselected in third position on the Liberal Party’s Senate ticket for the 2016 federal election and was the only new Tasmanian senator to win election that year. He served on various Senate committees before being appointed Deputy Government Whip in the Senate in February 2019. After the Coalition’s victory at the 2019 federal election, he was appointed Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries and Assistant Minister for Regional Tourism in the Second Morrison Ministry. He was also made Assistant Minister for Industry Development and Deputy Manager of Government Business in the Senate until May 2022, following the appointment of the Albanese ministry.

Duniam is a member of the National Right faction of the Liberal Party. He was personally opposed to same-sex marriage in 2016 but voted in favor of the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 after the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey. During the 2018 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spills, he refused to state whether he voted for incumbent prime minister Malcolm Turnbull or challenger Peter Dutton in the first vote, but reportedly voted for Dutton against Scott Morrison in the second vote.

Duniam is married to Anisa, whom he met at university, and they have three children. As of 2017, they lived on a small acreage outside of Hobart and started a child care centre in Hobart in 2016. His father-in-law, Zekri Palushi, is an Albanian cardiologist who sought asylum in Australia due to his political activities. Duniam is a Christian and attends the Mount Stuart Presbyterian Church in Hobart.