Diana Vivienne Laidlaw (born 1951), commonly referred to as Di Laidlaw, is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

politician. She was a member of the

South Australian Legislative Council The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly. It sits in Parli ...

(1982–2003) and held several ministerial posts.

Early life

Laidlaw was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the daughter of Don Laidlaw and Vivienne Laidlaw (née

Perry Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England, particularly in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. It is also made ...

), both law graduates of the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

. Her grandfather was the founder of

Perry Engineering Perry Engineering was a major foundry and steel engineering works in the state of South Australia. History Perry Engineering had its origins in 1899 when Samuel Perry purchased from the estate of James Wedlock the Cornwall Foundry on Hindley S ...

Political career

Her early political career was as an assistant to state and federal politicians before being elected to the Legislative Council in 1982. She entered cabinet in 1993 when the

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

government (1993-1996) came to power in the 1993 election, where she remained under the subsequent Olsen (1996-2001) and Kerin (2001-2002) governments, after which the Liberals lost power with the election of the

Rann government The Rann Government was the state executive government of South Australia led by Premier of South Australia Mike Rann of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2002 to 2011. Rann is a former Australian politician ...

. Laidlaw variously served as the Minister for Transport (1995–1997), the Minister for Transport and Urban Planning (1997–2002), the Minister for the Arts (1993–2002), and the Minister for the Status of Women (1993–2002). As Minister for the Arts, she presided over the establishment of several new arts organisations, including the Windmill Performing Arts for Children, the

Adelaide Cabaret Festival The Adelaide Cabaret Festival is an annual arts festival featuring cabaret held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. It has been held in June each year since 2001, with the exception of 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, ...

, the

Adelaide Festival of Ideas The Adelaide Festival of Ideas (AFOI) is a festival held in Adelaide, South Australia since 1999, usually biennially. It aims to foster the public promulgation, discussion and critique of culturally and socially relevant ideas from around the wo ...

, and the very successful 1998 production of

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's ''

Ring Cycle (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelung ...

''. She also promoted and advocated for Music Business and Music House, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra,

Country Arts SA Country Arts SA is statutory corporation created by the South Australian government under the provisions of the ''South Australian Country Arts Trust Act (1992)'', for the purpose of delivering arts to regional South Australia. Responsibility for ...

and the

Adelaide Fringe Festival The Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between mid-February and mid-March each year, ...

. It was Laidlaw who succeeded in obtaining funding for redevelopment of the North Terrace precinct, the riverbank development and the West End and

Hindley Street Hindley Street is located in the north-west quarter of the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs between King William Street and West Terrace. The street was named after Charles Hindley, a British parliamentarian and soc ...

precincts. She also presided over the expansion of the

Art Gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

, the

State Library A national library is established by the government of a nation to serve as the pre-eminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, they rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuab ...

Festival Centre Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia's first multi-purpose arts centre and the home of South Australia's performing arts, was built in the 1970s, designed by Hassell Architects. The Festival Theatre opened in June 1973 with the rest of the cent ...

and

Museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

, and significantly boosted the

South Australian Film Corporation South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) is a South Australian Government statutory corporation established in 1972 to engage in film production and promote the film industry, located in Adelaide, South Australia. The Adelaide Studios are managed ...

. In 2001, while Minister for the status of Women, she saw her government's

prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...

reform bill defeated in the Legislative Council. She is said to have been moved to tears, and called her colleagues "gutless".

Honours and awards

In 2003 Laidlaw was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

Flinders University Flinders University is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across 11 locations in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of British navigator ...

, for "her commitment to creating a supportive climate for the visual and performing arts in the state".

Early life

Political career

Honours and awards

References

Further reading