Tania Lawrence (born c. 1973) is an Australian politician. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2022 federal election, representing the Western Australian seat of Hasluck. She was a ministerial adviser and corporate manager before her election to parliament.

Early life

Lawrence was raised in York, Western Australia. She holds the degrees of Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Arts from

Murdoch University Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its n ...

and a Bachelor of Arts (

Hons. Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the Undergraduate education, undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a high ...

) in Asian studies from the University of Western Australia.

Career

Lawrence was a policy advisor to WA state governments led by Richard Court,

Geoff Gallop Geoffrey Ian Gallop (born 27 September 1951) is an Australian academic and former politician who served as the 27th Premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006. He is currently a professor and director of the Graduate School of Government at ...

, Alan Carpenter and Colin Barnett. From 2005 to 2010 she worked in the state government's Office of State Security and Emergency Coordination. She subsequently joined Woodside Petroleum as senior manager of global business integration. Lawrence left a government position in 2021 to work full-time as managing director of the Beelu Forest Distilling Company, a boutique

distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

which she established on her property in Mundaring. In 2021 her distillery received a $20,000 "innovation voucher" from the WA Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation under a program for start-ups. Her distillery was the only business in the hospitality industry to receive innovation funding, with the other 20 recipients focusing on medical technology, biotechnology and robotics. The voucher was awarded to undertake laboratory research to develop a premium Australian organic spirits distilled with novel proprietary koji strain.

Politics

In May 2018, Lawrence was selected as the ALP candidate for the

2018 Darling Range state by-election A Darling Range state by-election for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Darling Range was held on 23 June 2018 following the resignation of Barry Urban on 8 May. Won by Labor for the first time in the seat's history at the la ...

, which followed the resignation of former Labor MP

Barry Urban Barry Urban (born 10 December 1968) is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly representing Darling Range from March 2017 until his resignation in May 2018. Urban was elected as a member o ...

over the falsification of his credentials. She was nominated at the last minute following the discovery that the new ALP candidate Colleen Yates had also provided false credentials. She lost the seat to the Liberal candidate

Alyssa Hayden Alyssa Kathleen Hayden (; born 7 June 1970) is an Australian politician. Born in Perth, Hayden was a proprietor of a small business and a Australian Senate, Senate staff member before entering politics. In 2008, she was elected to the Western ...

. Lawrence was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2022 federal election. She defeated the incumbent Liberal MP

Ken Wyatt Kenneth George Wyatt (born 4 August 1952) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing the Division of Hasluck for the Liberal Party. He is the first Indigenous Australian el ...

, a federal government minister, in the seat of Hasluck. She is part of the Labor Right faction.

Personal life

As of 2022, Lawrence lives with her husband on their rural property in

Mundaring, Western Australia Mundaring is a suburb located 34 km east of Perth, Western Australia on the Great Eastern Highway. The suburb is located within the Shire of Mundaring. The Aboriginal name of the area "Mindah-lung", said to mean "a high place on a high pl ...

. She previously lost her house in the Toodyay bushfires in 2009. In 2015, Lawrence was elected as the first female president of Motorcycling Australia. She held a motorcycle racing licence and had competed in road races at Barbagallo Raceway. Her collection included a

BMW S1000RR BMW S1000RR is a race oriented sport bike initially made by BMW Motorrad to compete in the 2009 Superbike World Championship, that is now in commercial production. It was introduced in Munich in April 2008, and is powered by a four-cylinder eng ...

, a Ducati SuperSport, and a Husqvarna dirtbike.

References

Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Hasluck 21st-century Australian politicians Women members of the Australian House of Representatives Year of birth missing (living people) Labor Right politicians Murdoch University alumni University of Western Australia alumni Public servants of Western Australia 21st-century Australian women politicians {{Australia-politician-stub