Kris Hanna
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Kris Hanna (born 1962), Australian politician, is the member for Mitchell in the South Australian House of Assembly.
While initially elected as a member of the Australian Labor Party, he defected to the SA Greens in early 2003. He contested pre-selection as Upper House candidate for the SA Greens, narrowly coming in at No.2 to Mark Parnell. Following this, Hanna decided to run for re-election in Mitchell. He ultimately resigned from the Greens on 8 February 2006 and ran in the 2006 election as an independent.
Before entering Parliament, Hanna practised law, primarily in the areas of injury litigation and criminal defence. Hanna served as a councillor for the City of Marion from 1995 to 1997. He was elected to the South Australian Parliament as the Member for Mitchell in 1997 with a 10.5% swing, and re-elected in 200 with a further 4.2% swing. His chances of retaining his seat at the 2006 election had been essentially written off by most commentators after his decision to become an independent, but won a surprise narrow victory after an endorsement from popular independent Nick Xenophon. Hanna's margin was narrowed to 0.6% winning by 228 votes after preferences.
During his time in Parliament, Hanna spoke out in Parliament on issues such as Australia's treatment of refugees, environmental matters, constitutional reform and what he believes to be the fallacies of 'tough law & order' policies.
Hanna also devotes much of his time to refugee advocacy. He is a member of the SA Parliament's Amnesty International sub-branch, and occasionally a lawyer for refugees. He helped establish the Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia Inc [1] (RASSA), and is currently on the RASSA executive.
