Career
He is an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2007, representing the Division of Blair. On 25 March 2013, Newman was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General and Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing. Upon the defeat of the Rudd Government in the Australian Federal Election, 2013, Neumann was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Ageing under new Leader Bill Shorten.
Neumann was the Labor candidate for Blair at the 2004 federal election, and was heavily defeated by sitting Liberal member Cameron Thompson.
Blair was considered a safe Liberal seat at the time. Neumann sought a rematch in 2007.
This time, he was aided by two factors. Firstly, a redistribution of the electoral boundaries, finalised in 2006, pushed Blair further into Ipswich while cutting out the conservative-leaning rural towns of Esk and Kingaroy, roughly halving Thompson"s majority.
Secondly, there was a big Labor resurgence across the country at the 2007 federal election under the leadership of Kevin Rudd.
This resurgence was at its greatest in Queensland. Rudd"s home state.