Hon PATRICK CONLON MP

Minister for Transport and Infrastructure

Minister for Housing and Urban Development

Patrick Conlon was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and migrated to South Australia with his family in 1966 at the age of seven.

His family lived for a few years in a Housing Trust home in Elizabeth before moving to Port Adelaide. Mr Conlon was educated at LeFevre Primary and LeFevre Boys Technical High School and left school in Year 11.

He worked in various jobs including stints as a roof tiler, storeperson, timberhand, deckhand and signalperson before becoming a union organiser in 1983. In 1988 he studied Arts and Law at the University of Adelaide while working part time in such jobs as office cleaner, industrial officer, project officer and workers' compensation employee advocate.

Mr Conlon graduated with an Arts degree and with first-class honours in Law. He had a distinguished academic career, winning the Howard Zelling prize for Constitutional Law, the Stow Prize, and the David Murray Scholarship for his honours dissertation on employment law.

Mr Conlon was first elected as the Member for the inner south-western Adelaide seat of Elder in 1997. Along with being a devoted Port Adelaide supporter, his hobbies include fishing, fine wine and cooking.

His greatest love, however, is his family - wife Tania and daughters Sadie and Jemima.

Mr Conlon has been Minister for Emergency Services, Police and Government Enterprises and held the Energy portfolio for more than eight years.

As Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Conlon now oversees one of the South Australian Government's most important departments - one that is delivering the largest investment in infrastructure the State has ever seen. This includes projects such as the Adelaide Oval redevelopment, the Southern Expressway duplication and the South Road Superway, South Australia's largest ever road construction project.

Additionally, he is ushering in a new era for public transport investment in South Australia which includes the electrification of the Noarlunga, Gawler and Outer Harbor lines, extending the light rail network, station infrastructure upgrades, new buses and electric trains and a modern ticketing system.

As Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Mr Conlon is responsible for working with communities and the private sector to deliver the ambitions of the 30-year plan for Adelaide by bringing together the State's strategic assets in a new Urban Renewal Authority.