Tania Mihailuk is an Australian politician who served as a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

, representing

Bankstown Bankstown is a suburb south west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is located in the local government area of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, hav ...

from 2011 to 2023, as a member of the Labor Party, and later as a member of One Nation from October 2022 to March 2023. She is running for the Legislative Council on the One Nation ticket in 2023. Mihailuk became the first woman to represent Bankstown in its 80-plus-year history. She previously served as mayor of the

City of Bankstown The City of Bankstown was a local government area in the south-west region of Sydney, Australia, centred on the suburb of Bankstown, from 1895 to 2016. The last Mayor of the City of Bankstown Council was Clr Khal Asfour, a member of the Labor ...

, a position she held from 2006 to 2012.

Background and education

Mihailuk attended

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

and graduated with a degree in economics and later a degree in law. She has worked in various industries, including marketing and public policy.

Political career

Mihailuk was elected to Bankstown Council in 2004 and became mayor in 2006. She was endorsed as the Labor candidate for Bankstown in November 2010 after sitting member

Tony Stewart Anthony Wayne Stewart (born May 20, 1971), nicknamed Smoke, is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, current NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, and current co-owner of the Superstar Racing Experience. He is a ...

announced his resignation. She stated she would resign from council if she won, which she did, having suffered a swing against her of more than 15 points, as part of the Coalition's landslide election win. On 20 September 2022, Mihailuk used parliamentary privilege to link

Canterbury-Bankstown Council The City of Canterbury Bankstown (also known as Canterbury-Bankstown Council) is a local government area located in the South Western region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The council was formed on 12 May 2016 from a merger of the C ...

mayor,

Khal Asfour Khaldoun Asfour is an Australian politician currently serving as the Mayor of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, the largest local government area in New South Wales by population, and fourth most-populous local government in Australia. He previou ...

, to corrupt former Labor Minister

Eddie Obeid Edward Moses Obeid (born 25 October 1943) is a retired Australian politician, and convicted criminal, who served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council between 1991 and 2011, representing the Labor Party. He was the Minister f ...

. On 23 September, Labor Opposition Leader,

Chris Minns Christopher John Minns (born 17 September 1979) is an Australian politician who is the leader of the NSW Labor Party. He was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the member for Kogarah for the Labor Party at the 2015 New South ...

, demoted Mihailuk from the Shadow Cabinet. On 20 October 2022, Mihailuk resigned from the NSW Labor Party, claiming that the party was "plagued by corruption" and that it was "too

woke ''Woke'' ( ) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and Racial discrimination, discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social ineq ...

". On 17 January 2023, Mihailuk announced that she would be running second on the One Nation ticket at the upcoming

2023 New South Wales state election The 2023 New South Wales state election will be held on 25 March 2023 to elect the 58th Parliament of New South Wales, including all 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly and 21 of the 42 seats in the Legislative Council. The election will be ...

for the Legislative Council, behind party leader

Mark Latham Mark William Latham (born 28 February 1961) is an Australian politician and media commentator, currently serving as a member in the New South Wales Legislative Council. He previously served as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and ...

. Before that, in 2017 when she was a Labor MP she criticised One Nation and Mark Latham. Mihailuk officially resigned from the

on 1 March 2023.

Personal life

Mihailuk resides in Bankstown with her husband, Alex, and has three children.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mihailuk, Tania Living people Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Independent members of the Parliament of New South Wales Macquarie Law School alumni New South Wales local councillors Mayors of Bankstown Politicians from Sydney Australian people of Russian descent 21st-century Australian politicians Russian Orthodox Christians from Australia Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Women mayors of places in New South Wales Women local councillors in Australia Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 21st-century Australian women politicians Pauline Hanson's One Nation politicians 1976 births