Sophia Moermond (born 14 September 1968) is an Australian politician. She was elected to the

Western Australian Legislative Council The Western Australian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia, a state of Australia. It is regarded as a house of review for legislation passed by the Legislative Assembly, the lower house. The two Houses ...

at the 2021 state election, representing Legalise Cannabis WA.

Early life

Moermond was born in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

on 14 September 1968. She moved to South Africa with her parents in 1972, returning to the Netherlands four years later. The family immigrated to Australia in 1983, settling in

Heathridge, Western Australia Heathridge is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located south of Yanchep within the City of Joondalup. Etymology Heathridge was chosen as the suburb name because of the heath type vegetation growing on the sand ridges of the area, as well ...

. She attended

Ocean Reef Senior High School Ocean Reef Senior High School is an independent Public high school, located in Ocean Reef, north of Perth, Western Australia. Opened in 1983, the school's catchment area covered the northwestern part of the City of Joondalup and provides an e ...

, then returned to the Netherlands to study nursing. She graduated in 1991 and returned to Australia.

Career

Prior to entering politics, Moermond was a practising naturopath and

Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

practitioner, based in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. She also worked as an educator in the corporate sector. Moermond studied at Perth Academy of Natural Therapies, having initially trained as a

registered nurse A registered nurse (RN) is a nurse who has graduated or successfully passed a nursing program from a recognized nursing school and met the requirements outlined by a country, state, province or similar government-authorized licensing body to o ...

at the Anna Reynvaan School of Nursing in Amsterdam. She moved to Western Australia with her parents in 1983, and has an active interest in health, the environment, women's rights, and animal welfare.

Politics

At the

2021 Western Australian state election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

, Moermond was elected to the

as a member for Legalise Cannabis WA in the

South West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

Region.

Political positions

Moermond has described COVID-19 vaccine mandates as "medical apartheid" and has warned that they will end in "violence". In February 2022 she was suspended for some time from parliament under rules requiring MPs to present a digital identification certificate from Medicare highlighting their COVID-19 vaccination status (exempt or not).

References

Living people Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council Legalise Cannabis Western Australia Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia 21st-century Australian politicians Women members of the Western Australian Legislative Council 1968 births Naturopaths Dutch emigrants to Australia Australian nurses People from Rotterdam 21st-century Australian women politicians {{Australia-politician-stub