Keenan was born in Perth. His father Peter was born in County Durham, England. During the parliamentary eligibility crisis of 2017, it came to public attention that Keenan had acquired British citizenship by descent at birth, which he renounced before the 2004 election. Some media outlets had incorrectly reported that he had never renounced his citizenship; in response, he wrote "I am an Australian citizen and I do not hold citizenship of any other country. Fairfax is aware of this, yet in a cheap grab for a headline they have ignored this".[1][2]
Keenan was elected to parliament at the 2004 federal election, defeating the incumbent Labor member Jann McFarlane. He was promoted to the shadow ministry after the 2007 election, serving as Shadow Assistant Treasurer (2007–2008), Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations (2008–2009), and finally Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection (2009–13).[3] He was identified by the media as a supporter of Malcolm Turnbull in the 2009 leadership spill.[4]
During the 2016 federal election campaign, Keenan was accused of starting a smear campaign against the Muslim Labor candidate Anne Aly, in reference to her previous counter-terrorism work. Keenan appeared with Liberal MP Luke Simpkins, the incumbent in Cowan whose seat was challenged by Aly, to make accusations against her. However, prior to Aly becoming a Labor candidate, Simpkins had written to her in admiration of her counter-terrorism work.[7][8]
As justice minister, Keenan oversaw the first national firearms amnesty since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. It ran from July to September 2017, allowing people to hand in unregistered or unwanted firearms.[9] The amnesty had been approved in March 2017 by the Firearms and Weapons Policy Working Group (FWPWG) to reduce the number of unregistered firearms in Australia that were being used in Islamic terrorist attacks.[10][11]
On Wednesday 13 February 2019, one of Keenan's office staffers was implicated in conspiring with Michaelia Cash's office staff in making strategic media leaks about AFP raids on the offices of the AWU.
^Turnbull, Malcolm (20 December 2017). "Ministerial Arrangements" (Press release). Government of Australia. Archived from the original on 13 March 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2018. Michael Keenan will join Cabinet as Minister for Human Services and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Digital Transformation - a central role in ensuring all Australians get the services they expect when dealing with the Government, particularly as more and more services shift online.
