Tanya Davies is an Australian politician who has 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 the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

since

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. She is a member of the conservative faction of the Liberal Party. Davies was the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Minister for Mental Health Ministers of Mental Health are specific Government Ministers with a responsibility over mental health. History Not many countries have dedicated ministers for mental health, however a minister with another name may be responsible for it. By c ...

, the Minister for Women and the Minister for Ageing from January 2017 until March 2019 in the first Berejiklian government.

Early years and background

Davies was born and raised in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

and moved to Sydney, aged 17, initially living with her grandparents at

Regents Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwe ...

for her university studies where she graduated with a degree in

physiotherapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patient ...

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 ...

. Davies worked as a

physiotherapist Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patient ...

in the public health system before working in higher education institutions such as the

University of Western Sydney Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network u ...

and

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

. Elected to

Penrith City Council The City of Penrith is a local government area in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The seat of the city is located in Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith, located about west of Sydney's Sydney central business district, central business ...

in 2008, Davies served on Council until 2012. Davies' husband, Mark Davies, also served on Penrith City Council and in 2012 was elected mayor of the City of Penrith. Tanya has two children: the eldest Laura Davies and the youngest Harry Davies.

Political career

In 2011, Davies contested the then

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

seat of Mulgoa in Sydney's western suburbs. She was elected with a swing of 23.2 per cent, winning the seat with 62 per cent of the

two-party A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...

. Davies' Labor opponent was Prue Guillaume.

Diane Beamer Diane Beamer (born 15 July 1960) is an Australians, Australian politician. As an Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch), Australian Labor Party member of the New South Wales New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly, sh ...

, who was the sitting Labor member, had retired from politics after holding the seat and its predecessor,

Badgerys Creek Badgerys Creek, also known as Badgery's Creek, is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of the City of Liverpool. It i ...

, for 16 years. In 2017, Davies was appointed the Minister for Mental Health, the Minister for Women and the Minister for Ageing in the Berejiklian government. In June 2018, Davies voted against a bill that would create "safe access zones" outside abortion clinics. She is an opponent of legal abortion and was one of two Liberal Party members who threatened to leave the government if amendments were not made on a 2019 bill to decriminalise abortion. Davies was re-elected at the 2019 state election, but was not reappointed to the

Second Berejiklian ministry The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

. The 2020 redistribution undertaken for the

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 ...

was finalised in 2021, where the district of

Mulgoa Mulgoa is a village, located in the local government area of the City of Penrith, in the region of western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mulgoa is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district. Mu ...

was effectively renamed

. Davies registered as a candidate for Badgerys Creek in that election.

Anti-vaccination actions

In January 2022 she spoke at a ‘Prayer and pushback’ forum moderated by a former Hillsong Church pastor and featuring anti-vax speakers, where, contrary to policies of state and federal government, she spoke against

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

vaccinations for children. Davies spoke again at an ‘anti-vaccination rally’ in March 2022, where among other things she criticised the Perrottet government’s handling of vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Tanya Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Living people Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly University of Sydney alumni 21st-century Australian politicians Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian women politicians

Early years and background

Political career

Anti-vaccination actions

See also

References