Diana Muriel Warnock (''née'' Robinson; born 3 October 1940 in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

) is a former Western Australian radio broadcaster, women's rights activist and state politician. Warnock worked as a journalist with the Perth ''Daily News'', and as a radio broadcaster with

720 ABC Perth ABC Radio Perth (call sign: 6WF) is the on-air identifier of a radio station located in Perth, Western Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and broadcasting at 720 kHz AM. It is the flagship ABC Local Radio station ...

6PR 6PR, known as 882 6PR, is a commercial radio station based in Perth, Western Australia. Owned by Nine Entertainment, its focus is on news, talk and sport, and is Perth's only commercial talkback radio station. It commenced broadcasting on 14 Oc ...

and 6NR. She was elected to the State Parliament as the Member for Perth in 1993, succeeding Dr Ian Alexander who had retired. She was re-elected in 1996 but did not contest the February 2001 election. Her political career was entirely from the opposition bench, during the premiership of

Richard Court Richard Fairfax Court (born 27 September 1947) is a former Australian politician and diplomat. He served as Premier of Western Australia from 1993 to 2001 and as Australian Ambassador to Japan from 2017 to 2020. A member of the Liberal Party, ...

. Warnock served as Opposition whip, spokesperson for Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs and the Arts and spokesperson for Women's Interests and Racing & Gaming. She also served as President of the State Parliamentary Labor Party. In 1996, Warnock and

upper house An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restric ...

Cheryl Davenport Cheryl May Davenport ''née'' Crockenberg (born 19 January 1947) is a former Australian politician. She was born in Pinjarra and was an electorate officer before entering politics. In 1989 she was elected to the Western Australian Legislative ...

steered a controversial pro-choice bill through the parliament—the "Acts Amendment (Abortion) Bill", which effectively decriminalised abortion and enabled women to access abortions of pregnancies up to 20 weeks on the basis of informed consent. In 1999 she was named the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. , she is the current patron of the Friends of Perth International Arts Festival.PIAF website
/ref> Warnock was married to local novelist, playwright and arts patron Bill Warnock, who died in 2001.

References

1940 births Living people People from Perth, Western Australia Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Australian radio personalities Australian women radio presenters Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia 21st-century Australian politicians Women members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian women politicians {{Australia-Labor-WesternAustralia-MP-stub