Jerome Alexandre Alain Laxale (born 20 November 1983) is an Australian politician as a member for the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

(ALP), representing as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813), also spelt Baneelon, was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia in 1788. Bennelong serv ...

after being elected at the 2022 federal election. Laxale was formerly Councillor of the

City of Ryde The City of Ryde is a local government area in the Northern Sydney region, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It was first established as the Municipal District of Ryde in 1870, became a municipality in 1906 and was proclaimed as the ...

from 2012 to July 2022 and was the City's Mayor, serving two terms in 2015 to 2016 and from 2017 to 2022.

Early life and career

Laxale was born on 20 November 1983 in the

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

suburb of Westmead to a father from

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

and a mother from

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...

, a French overseas department. His father was a member of the

Mauritian Militant Movement The Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM) ( en, Mauritian Militant Movement) is a left-wing socialist political party in Mauritius. The party was formed by a group of students in the late 1960s. The MMM advocates what it sees as a "fairer" society, ...

(MMM). Laxale was educated at The King's School. He then attended

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

and majored in Politics and International Relations and the French language. After finishing university, he joined the family business supplying hair and beauty products as a small business director.

Political career

Laxale joined the Labor Party in 2004 and was the

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station **Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the Ph ...

Labor branch president since 2008. He is a member of the

Labor Left The Labor Left, also known as the Progressive Left or Socialist Left, is political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It competes with the more economically liberal Labor Right faction. The Labor Left operates autonomously in each s ...

faction.

City of Ryde

Laxale was first elected to the

for the West Ward in the 2012 local government elections. Laxale became Mayor of the Council on 8 September 2015 and was at the time the youngest ever in this role at the age of 31. At the end of the one-year term on 16 September 2016, Laxale was replaced as Mayor by Liberal Councillor Bill Pickering by a 7–5 vote of the Council. After the local government elections in September 2017, on 26 September 2017, the newly-elected Council elected Laxale to be the Mayor again for a two-year term. He was re-elected in September 2019 and in September 2021, serving as mayor until January 2022, when he was succeeded by Liberal's Jordan Lane. In addition to his duties as a Councillor in the City of Ryde, Laxale was also the Treasurer in the Local Government NSW (LGNSW) Board, a position he was elected to in October 2019. Laxale resigned as Councillor on 22 July 2022 after he was elected to federal parliament. Laxale also left the LGNSW board and his position as LGNSW Treasurer.

Attempts to enter state politics

Laxale contested the state seat of Ryde as the Labor candidate in the

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

state elections but lost to incumbent

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

member

Victor Dominello Victor Michael Dominello (born 30 July 1967 in Ryde, New South Wales, Ryde, New South Wales), is an Australian politician who has been the Government of New South Wales, New South Wales Minister for Customer Service (New South Wales), Minister ...

in all three occasions. However, his primary vote and

two-party-preferred vote In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...

(TPP) had increased in each election, starting with 17.0% primary vote and 24.3% TPP in 2011, increasing to 30.4% primary vote and 41% of the TPP in 2019.

Federal politics

Laxale was the Labor Party candidate for the

Division of Bennelong The Division of Bennelong is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division was created in 1949 and is named after Woollarawarre Bennelong, an Aboriginal man befriended by the first Governor of New South Wale ...

, which had once been represented by former

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...

, in the 2022 federal election. In order to stand for election, he renounced his French and

Mauritian Mauritians (singular Mauritian; french: Mauricien; Creole: ''Morisien'') are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian (notably I ...

citizenships, which he inherited from his mother and father respectively. He took the seat off the Liberals on a swing of 7.9 percent, just over the 6.9 percent swing he needed to win. He is just the second Labor member to win the former Liberal stronghold since its creation in 1949.

Personal life

Laxale has a son and twin daughters from a previous marriage. Laxale's current partner is Jo Taranto. Laxale has lived in the City of Ryde and the electorate of Bennelong since 2006. He lives in

North Ryde North Ryde is a suburb located in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Ryde is located 15 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City ...

. Laxale is highly proficient in the French, German and French-based Creoles and Pidgin languages.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laxale, Jerome Australian Labor Party mayors Mayors of Ryde Living people 1983 births 21st-century Australian politicians University of New South Wales alumni Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Left politicians Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Bennelong Australian people of French descent Australian people of Mauritian descent People of Réunion descent People educated at The King's School, Parramatta