Meng Heang Tak ( km, ម៉េងហ៊ាងតាក់) is an Australian politician and former lawyer. He has been a Labor Party member of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

since November 2018, representing the seat of Clarinda. Heang Tak was born in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

and came to Australia at sixteen years old, where he attended the English Language School at Westall Secondary and Heatherhill Secondary College in Keysboroough before completing a double degree in Arts and Laws, Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice and Graduate Certificate in Migration Law at Victoria University. Before entering politics he was a lawyer in Melbourne’s south-east and a SBS radio broadcaster. He was a councillor in the

City of Greater Dandenong The City of Greater Dandenong is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of just under 130 square kilometres (50 sq mi) and 166,094 residents in 2018. 29% of its land area forms par ...

prior to being elected to Parliament, serving as mayor in 2015–16. In

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, Heang Tak won the safe Labor seat of Clarinda and safely retained the seat in 2022. Originally a member of

Labor Right The Labor Right, also known as Modern Labor, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more economically conservative and, in some cases, more socially conservative. The Labor ...

, Heang Tak joined

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 ...

along with six of his colleagues shortly after the 2022 Victorian state election. Tak lives in Springvale with his wife and three children.

References

Notes Citations Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians Cambodian emigrants to Australia Labor Left politicians Australian politicians of Asian descent {{Australia-Labor-Victoria-MP-stub