Eva Dina Lawler is an Australian politician. She is a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member of the

Northern Territory Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, each elected in single-member electorates for four-year terms. The voting method fo ...

since 2016, representing the electorate of Drysdale. She was Minister for Education in the Gunner Ministry from September 2016 until June 2018, when she was made Minister for Environment and Natural Resources and Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics.

Early life and career

Lawler was born in Darwin. She and her family were evacuated after

Cyclone Tracy Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from 24 to 26 December 1974. The small, developing easterly storm had been observed passing clear of the city initially, but then turned t ...

but returned to Darwin. Lawler completed a Bachelor of Education at the then Darwin Community College. She taught at Berry Springs Primary School, Gray Primary School and Humpty Doo Primary School. She was promoted to assistant principal, working at Anula Primary School and then Principal at Jingili Primary School. Eva also worked for the Department of Education promoting health and wellbeing in schools. She later gained a master's degree in education and a master's in international management, a diploma in project management and an associate diploma in public service management. Before entering politics she worked for the Department of Sport and Recreation. Lawler has two children.

Politics

Lawler seemingly faced long odds when she was nominated as Labor candidate in Drysdale for the 2016 election. The seat's then-

Country Liberal Party The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP) is a centre-right political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In local politics it operates in a two-party system with the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It also contests federal ...

incumbent,

Lia Finocchiaro Lia Emele Finocchiaro (; born 20 September 1984) is an Australian politician. She has been a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the seat of Electoral division of Spillett, Spillett since her 2016 Nor ...

, opted to contested the new seat of Spillett after that seat absorbed much of her old base. Even after the redistribution, the downtown Palmerston seat still had a CLP majority of 11.5 percent, making it a comfortably safe Country Liberal seat on paper. Labor had only won the seat once, in its 2005 landslide when it took two seats in Palmerston—the only time it had won seats there prior to 2016. However, Labor had its majority in Drysdale redistributed away in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. However, by the time the writs were dropped for the 2016 election, the CLP's support in Palmerston had collapsed. One poll had the CLP on only 37 percent support in an area that had been a CLP stronghold for the better part of four decades. On election night, the CLP's primary vote collapsed by over 20 percent, and Lawler took the seat on a swing of over 16 percent. On 11 September 2016, Lawler was named to cabinet as Minister for Education. She was reelected in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

with a small swing in her favour, becoming the first Labor MP to win a second term in a Palmerston-based seat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawler, Eva Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians Women members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly Women members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian women politicians