from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. He resigned his directorship of the company the following year to join the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA) as a union organiser. He left the SDA in 2003 to run for the New South Wales Legislative Council. State politics At the 2003 state election, Burke was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council. He chaired the NSW State Development Committee, conducting inquiries into ports infrastructure and science commercialisation. A view gradually formed that Burke's talents were wasted in the NSW Legislative Council and he resigned from state parliament on 24 June 2004 to campaign for the New South Wales division of Watson. He won the seat at the 2004 federal election. Federal politics A member of Labor Right, Burke was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2004 federal election, replacing the retiring Leo McLeay in the safe Labor seat of Watson. He and fellow Labor MP Linda Burney are the only members of the Federal Parliament to have always served as a minister or shadow minister. He was immediately promoted to the shadow ministry under Mark Latham, as Shadow Minister for Small Business. He was promoted to Shadow Minister for Immigration in June 2005, by which time Kim Beazley had replaced Latham as leader. After the 2006 leadership spill, the new leader Kevin Rudd expanded Burke's portfolio to Immigration, Integration and Citizenship. Rudd and Gillard governments After the 2007 federal election, Burke was appointed Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in the new Rudd Government. He was sworn in by the Governor-General on 3 December 2007. Burke oversaw the abolition of the Australian bulk wheat export monopoly after the AWB oil-for-wheat scandal. He oversaw the eradication of the horse flu in Australia after the 2007 equine influenza outbreak. On 2 April 2010, Rudd appointed Burke as Minister for Population. The appointment came after Rudd stated he was in favour of a "big Australia" in response to demographic projections in the Government's Intergenerational Report showing the population of Australia would increase from 22 million in 2010 to 35 million in 2050. Burke's responsibilities included planning for the growth in Australia's population and coordinating the provision of services accordingly. Following the 2010 federal election, Burke was appointed Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. In March 2012, following the ALP leadership spill, Burke was also appointed Vice-President of the