Michael Palmer (politician)
former Singaporean politician
Michael Anthony Palmer (born 14 July 1968) is a Singaporean lawyer and former politician who served as Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore between 2011 and 2012. A former member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Punggol East ward of Pasir Ris–Punggol Group Representation Constituency (GRC) between 2006 and 2011, and Punggol East Single Member Constituency (SMC) between 2011 and 2012.
Career
Palmer was called to the Singapore Bar in 1995 and joined the law firm Harry Elias Partnership as a legal consultant before becoming a partner in 1998.
In April 2013, Palmer left Harry Elias Partnership and joined the law firm Lawrence Quahe & Woo. The firm was renamed Quahe Woo & Palmer when he joined.
Political career
Palmer made his political debut in the 2006 general election as part of a five-member PAP team contesting in Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC and won.
Palmer served as Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Defence and Foreign Affairs from 2008 to 2011, and as Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs and Law from 2011 until in resignation in 2012.
Palmer contested in Punggol East SMC during the 2011 general election and won. He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Punggol East SMC after defeating Lee Li Lian of the Workers' Party and Desmond Lim of the Singapore Democratic Alliance. Palmer was subsequently nominated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for the office of Speaker of Parliament, before being elected by the House on 10 October 2011.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6833355. VIAF identifies the subject as 18160242954952432184. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968, 2011, 2012 and 2006.
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This entry incorporates text from “Michael Palmer (politician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.