Stephen Lawrence is an Australian barrister and Labor Party politician who is currently serving as a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...

. He previously served as the mayor of the

Dubbo Regional Council The Dubbo Regional Council is a local government area located in the Central West and Orana regions of New South Wales, Australia. The council was formed on 12 May 2016 through a merger of the City of Dubbo and Wellington Council as part of a ...

. He also co-hosts Australian legal podcast "The Wigs", with Jim Minns, Emmanuel Kerkysharian and Felicity Graham.

Early life

Lawrence was born in

Griffith, New South Wales Griffith is a major regional city in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area that is located in the north-western part of the Riverina region of New South Wales, known commonly as the food bowl of Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith ...

in 1975 to a family of five children. He was educated at

St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill , motto_translation = Strive Strive for better things , established = , type = Independent single-sex secondary day and boarding school , educational_authority = New South Wales Department of Educati ...

and received a Bachelor of Arts from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

and a Bachelor of Laws and Masters of Laws from the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

Career

Legal

Lawrence has been a lawyer since 2001 specialising in criminal and administrative law. He was a specialist family violence and sexual assault prosecutor in Canberra, Australia. He has specialised in transitional justice, having been a public defender in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

as part of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands and an Australia Government Justice Advisor in Afghanistan where he assisted in the trials of Taliban detainees. He has also been involved in criminal defence work in Nauru and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Lawrence moved to Dubbo in 2010 to work as a solicitor at the

Aboriginal Legal Service The Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) (ALS), known also as Aboriginal Legal Service, is a community-run organisation in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, founded in 1970 to provide legal services to Aboriginal Australians a ...

, where he appeared in Bugmy v The Queen

013 013 is a music venue in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The venue opened in 1998 and replaced the ''Noorderligt'', the ''Bat Cave'' and the ''MuziekKantenWinkel''. 013 is the largest popular music venue in the southern Netherlands. There are two concer ...

HCA 37, a significant case on sentencing socially disadvantaged Aboriginal offenders. Lawrence worked as a barrister from 2015 until he was elected to the NSW parliament in 2023. He was involved in a range of high profile cases as a barrister including Alexander v Minister for Home Affairs 022HCA 19 in which the High Court struck down federal citizenship stripping laws and Raul Bassi v Commissioner of Police (NSW)

020 020 is the national dialling code for London in the United Kingdom. All subscriber numbers within the area code consist of eight digits and it has capacity for approaching 100 million telephone numbers. The code is used at 170 telephone exch ...

NSWCA 109 in which the NSW Court of Appeal authorised a large Black Lives Matter protest minutes before it was due to commence. He was also one of a team of Australian lawyers who appeared in the long running Nauru 19 litigation in Nauru.

Politics

Lawrence first joined the Labor Party at the age of eighteen and is a member of the

United Services Union The United Services Union (registered as the NSW Local Government Clerical Administrative Energy Airlines & Utilities Union) is a trade union representing workers in a variety of industries. The USU is affiliated with the Australian Council of ...

. He was endorsed as the Labor candidate for the state seat of

Dubbo Dubbo () is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Gol ...

at the 2015 election and again at the 2019 election. He was elected to Dubbo Regional Council in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, the first endorsed Labor candidate to be elected to local government in Dubbo. He was elected as Deputy Mayor in 2019 and Mayor in 2021. In 2019 he was elected as the Vice President (Rural and Regional) of Local Government NSW, a peak body for local government in NSW. He retired from local government at the December 2021 election (which saw three Labor candidates elected in Dubbo wards) and was later endorsed as a Labor candidate for the Legislative Council at the 2023 state election, where he was elected. In October 2023, Lawrence signed an open letter in which he and other parliamentarians stated their solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian Australian community and condemned attacks against Israeli and Palestinian civilians during the

2023 Israel–Hamas war } The ongoing armed conflict between Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups and Israel military forces began on 7 October 2023, 50 years after the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Hamas's coordinated surprise offensive, codenamed "Al-Aqsa Fl ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Stephen Year of birth missing (living people) Living people New South Wales politicians Australian barristers Australian National University alumni People educated at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill University of Sydney alumni Mayors of places in New South Wales