20 Facts About Jenny Mikakos

Jenny Mikakos was born on 25 January 1969 and is a former Australian politician for the Labor Party who was a Member of the Legislative Council of Victoria from 1999 to 2020.

Jenny Mikakos served as the Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services and Minister for the Coordination of Health and Human Services COVID-19 as well as Deputy Leader of the Government, but resigned these positions and from parliament on 26 September 2020 in the wake of criticism of her role in hotel quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jenny Mikakos was first elected to parliament as the Member for Jika Jika Province in the State of Victoria in September 1999.

Jenny Mikakos' electorate was abolished at the 2006 election as part of major reforms of the Legislative Council introduced after the 2002 election, but she won the second position on the Labor ticket for the replacement electorate, the larger, five-member Northern Metropolitan Region.

Jenny Mikakos was first on the Labor ticket at the 2010,2014 and 2018 elections.

In Parliament, Jenny Mikakos held the roles of Parliamentary Secretary for Justice, Parliamentary Secretary for Planning, Shadow Minister for Community Services, Children, Youth Affairs, Youth Justice and Seniors and Ageing, Minister for Families and Children, Early Childhood Education and Youth Affairs, and Minister for Health and Ambulance Services.

In Parliament, Jenny Mikakos voted against the human cloning bill but for stem cell research, for abortion decriminalisation, for assisted reproductive technology reforms and for dying with dignity laws.

Jenny Mikakos resigned as Minister for Health and from the Legislative Council on 26 September 2020.

In 2003, Jenny Mikakos was criticised for nepotism after employing her sister Nikki in her taxpayer-funded electoral office.

In 2005, Jenny Mikakos was forced to pay back taxpayer funds spent mailing Labor Party members on Parliamentary stationery for reelection support, which led to Premier Steve Bracks warning Labor MPs regarding the conduct.

In 2014, Jenny Mikakos was again involved in applying taxpayer funds for political purposes, and the Victorian Ombudsman found that Jenny Mikakos was among a number of Labor MPs who had misused $388,000 in taxpayer funds for election campaigning.

Jenny Mikakos declined to be interviewed by police in connection with the affair, which became known as the "red shirts rort".

Later, Jenny Mikakos illegally moved the relevant inmates to an adult prison, and was forced to reverse that decision by the Supreme Court of Victoria.

In 2018, Jenny Mikakos was suspended from Parliament for a day after accusing Liberal MPs of racism.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Jenny Mikakos was criticised for attacking a Melbourne GP who attended work after travelling to the United States.

Later, in April 2020, Jenny Mikakos was involved in controversy when she defended a comparison between COVID-19 and Captain Cook.

The resurgence occurred despite a report from experts a month earlier warning of an opportunity to prevent a further outbreak; Jenny Mikakos claimed she was unsure whether her government had received a copy of the report and attempted to distance herself from the scandal.

Jenny Mikakos stated that she was declining to answer questions relating to the breakdown of hotel quarantine until a result came out of the independent inquiry led by former Justice Jennifer Coate.

On 24 September 2020, Jenny Mikakos appeared before the board of inquiry into the hotel quarantine program, where she stated that she had not made the decision to use private security contractors to manage the quarantine program, and had not been aware of the arrangement until an outbreak at a Melbourne hotel became apparent in mid-May.

Jenny Mikakos made a statement suggesting that the reason for her resignation was that she disagreed with "elements" of the Premier's statement, and was no longer able to serve in his cabinet.