Hajnal Ban

Hajnal Ban

Hajnal Ban (born 3 November 1977) is a Barrister-at-Law (Lawyer), author and Australian conservative politician. She is currently a councillor for Logan City Council, elected March 15, 2008 and before that a councillor for the now defunct Beaudesert Shire Council from March 27, 2004. She was an unsuccessful National Party candidate for the federal seat of Forde, south of Brisbane, at the 2007 federal election.

Early Life

Hajnal Ban was born Afula, Israel, to Hungarian parents. Hajnal Ban speaks fluent Hungarian, as this is the primary language in her home, and English. Her grandfather was an Eastern European Jewish holocaust survivor, and moved the family to Israel in 1976 to escape communism. The family moved to Austria in 1980 and then immigrated to Logan City, south of Brisbane, Australia in 1983. On gaining pre-selection for a Federal seat, Hajnal Ban reluctantly relinquished her Israeli citizenship as Section 44 of the Australian Constitution forbids the election of people holding dual citizenship to its parliament.

Education

Hajnal Ban was educated at Marsden Primary School and then Marsden State High School, graduating in 1995. After high school she gained admittance to Griffith University's law school and completed a double degree in Law and International Business. After completing her degrees in 2000 Hajnal Ban immediately completed the necessary requirements to be admitted as a Barrister-at-Law in 2001.

Leg lengthening surgery

In 2002 Hajnal Ban undertook radical cosmetic surgery to gain 8 cm of height. She travelled to the Russian Ilizarov Scientific Centre for Restorative Traumatology and Orthopaedics in Kurgan, Russia where she was operated on by Dr Constantine Novikov.

Over a period of 5 months Hajnal Ban was bed ridden as her legs were lengthened. The process of lengthening took 12 months. She returned to Australia and talked to the media about her operation under the pseudonym Sara Vornamen in an attempt to hide her identity. Under the name 'Sara Vornamen' Hajnal Ban wrote a book about her surgery, 'God made me small, Surgery made me Tall'.

Brisbane's Courier-Mail revealed in April 2009 that Hajnal Ban was actually Sara Vornamen. Since that time Hajnal Ban has received world wide attention for her surgery.

Political career

2004 - 2008

Hajnal Ban was first elected as Councillor for Division 4 in the former Beaudesert Shire on March 27, 2004 at the age of 26. She was the youngest ever councillor to be elected in the shire and the only Barrister. She was elected to council as an independent and had no previous political party affiliation. She joined the National Party in 2006. She was Chairperson of the Shire's Planning and Development Committee from April 2004, until December 2005 when she was removed from the post, a move spearheaded by Councillor John Fronis, over her passionate opposition to the State's decision to designate the North McLean Enterprise Precinct in the South East Queensland Regional Plan, which would have placed heavy industry in the middle of her rural residential electorate.

Federal election

In November 2007 Hajnal Ban stood as the National Party candidate for the Federal seat of Forde. Although she worked hard at her campaign and was credited with achieving a larger then expected swing, Hajnal Ban only achieved 12.2% of the primary vote . The Forde electorate's voter base is heavily urban, so it was always unlikely the electorate would have voted for a National Party candidate over their urban Conservative sister party, the Liberals.

2008 Local Government Elections

In July 2007 the Queensland Labor Government announced widespread reform to local government. The major reform was to amalgamate many councils, and Beaudesert was included in the process. Half of the Shire was amalgamated with Boonah Shire to create the Scenic Rim Regional Council while the other half was amalgamated with Logan City Council. Hajnal Ban's entire electorate was in the transferring area to be amalgamated into Logan City. Her division underwent significant change as it was merged with the neighbouring Division 5 to form the new Logan City Council Division 11. Councillor John Fronis held Division 5. John Fronis and Hajnal Ban were subsequently pit against each other at the March 2008 elections. Hajnal Ban won the ensuing election convincingly, even beating John Fronis in the parts of the new division which were once his old division 5. Hajnal Ban achieved 66.06% of the two-candidate-preferred vote to John Fronis' 33.94% .

Post 2008 election

After her election to Logan City Council Hajnal Ban was elected Chairperson of the Community, Sport and Customer Services Committee but was removed from this position in May 2009 and replaced by a neighbouring councillor, Phil Pidgeon because of her strong and somewhat outspoken advocacy for the amalgamated areas she represents.

Future ambitions

Hajnal Ban was rumoured to be interested in contending the National Party held seat of Beaudesert at the announcement of the retirement of long time member Kev Lingard but ruled out running as she held the belief that state governments should be abolished. When the National and Liberal Parties merged in June 2008, Hajnal Ban became a member of the new Liberal National Party of Queensland.

Hajnal Ban remains tight-lipped about another tilt at the Federal Seat of Forde. With the recent merger, the seat of Forde (which was once considered as a Liberal Party seat) is now firmly in the hands of the members of the former National Party making Ban's run for preselection far easier should she decide to run.

She has recently announced via her website that she plans to re-write her original book and title it Her Secret.

External links

• Hajnal Ban Official site.