Melissa Lee Price (née Dellar; born 12 December 1963) is an Australian politician who served as

Minister for Defence Industry In the Government of Australia, the Minister for Defence Industry is currently the Hon Pat Conroy MP since 1 June 2022, following the Australian federal election in 2022. The Minister for Defence Industry, or previously the Minister of Suppl ...

from 2019 to 2022 and as Minister for Science and Technology from 2021 to 2022 in the

Morrison Government The Morrison government was the federal executive government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison of the Liberal Party of Australia, between 2018 and 2022. The Morrison government commenced on 24 August 2018, when it was sworn ...

. She has been a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

since 2013, representing the

Division of Durack The Division of Durack is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Western Australia. History The Division is named after the pioneering Durack family, upon whom Dame Mary Durack based her popular historical novels. Created to replac ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

. A member of 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 ...

, she previously served as Minister for the Environment (2018–2019) and Assistant Minister for the Environment (2017–2018).

Early life

Price was born on 12 December 1963 in

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

. She is the youngest of four children born to Lyn (née Blurton) and Ray Dellar, who worked in the mining industry. Her father campaigned for the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

(ALP) and her grandfather

David Dellar David Peter Dellar (30 October 1915 – 30 January 1994) was an Australian politician who served as a Labor Party member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia from 1963 to 1965, representing North-East Province. Dellar was born in ...

and uncle

Stan Dellar Stanley James Dellar (29 November 1936 – 11 April 2015) was an Australian politician who served as a Labor Party member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia from 1971 to 1977, representing Lower North Province. Dellar was born i ...

both represented the ALP in 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 ...

. Price was educated in Kalgoorlie at St Mary's Catholic Primary School and Prendiville Catholic Girls College. She left school at the age of 15. In her maiden speech to parliament, she stated that she "enjoyed working in the hospitality and insurance industries, and also in management in the fast food industry, the grains industry and the mining industry ..I was even an aerobics instructor at one point in my history". Price attended university as a mature-age student, graduating with the degree of

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

from

London South Bank University London South Bank University (LSBU) is a public university in Elephant and Castle, London. It is based in the London Borough of Southwark, near the South Bank of the River Thames, from which it takes its name. Founded in 1892 as the Borough ...

and completing a graduate diploma in law at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilitie ...

. Price was a solicitor in private practice from 1997 to 2002. She subsequently worked at grain cooperative

CBH Group The CBH Group (commonly known as CBH, an acronym for Co-operative Bulk Handling), is a grain growers' cooperative that handles, markets and processes grain from the wheatbelt of Western Australia. History CBH was formed on 5 April 1933, at ...

as general counsel and business development manager until 2008, and then at iron ore miner Crosslands Resources as vice-president of legal and business development until 2012. Price was also a non-executive director of the Cancer Council of Western Australia and the BrightSpark Foundation until 2016.

Politics

Price unsuccessfully contested the state seat of

at the March 2013 state election. In July 2013 she won Liberal preselection for the federal seat of Durack, following the retirement of the incumbent MP Barry Haase. She retained Durack for the Liberals at the September 2013 federal election, with the Nationals candidate Shane van Styn finishing second on the

two-candidate-preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...

count. Price served on the

speaker's panel The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia. The counterpart in the upper house is the President of the Senate. The office of Speaker wa ...

from 2015 to 2016 and was chair of the House of Representatives standing committee on indigenous affairs from 2016 to 2017. She was re-elected at the 2016 federal election, despite being challenged for Liberal preselection by geologist and global warming denier David Archibald. Price is a member of the centre-right faction of the Liberal Party.

Government minister

In December 2017, Price was appointed Assistant Minister for the Environment in the Turnbull Government, under environment minister Josh Frydenberg. During the 2018 Liberal leadership spills, she reportedly voted for incumbent prime minister

Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Turnbull grad ...

against

Peter Dutton Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian politician who has been leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party since May 2022. He has represented the Queensland seat of Dickson in the House of Representatives sinc ...

in the first vote. She told the ''

Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

'' that "a change of leader would be political suicide". Following Turnbull's withdrawal, she voted for Scott Morrison against Dutton in a second vote days later. Price was subsequently appointed Minister for the Environment in the

and elevated to

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

. As environment minister, Price attended the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland. ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'' reported that she had met with state environment ministers prior to the conference and proposed a strategy that "would put the onus on the states to lead environmental policy", but that she "failed to secure agreement on a national action plan on climate change yesterday after the states rejected the wording". In March 2019, Price attributed bushfires in Western Australia and Victoria to climate change. In the lead-up to the 2019 federal election, she was "front and centre of Scott Morrison's push to highlight his government’s environmental records and policies including a $3.3bn Climate Solutions Fund and a commitment to Snowy Hydro 2.0". In April 2019, Price gave ministerial approval to an environmental management plan for the

Adani Group Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Ahmedabad. It was founded by Gautam Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading business, with the flagship company Adani Enterprises. The Group's diverse businesses include po ...

's controversial

Carmichael coal mine The Carmichael coal mine is a coal mine in Queensland, Australia which produced its first shipment of coal in December 2021. The mine has drawn criticism for its environmental impacts on the Great Barrier Reef, water usage and carbon emissions. ...

in Queensland. Her final approval came several days after she was advised by her department to approve the plan, delayed in order to seek further detail about the mine's impact on groundwater. As a result "a delegation of Queensland MPs and the Prime Minister met over concerns that Ms Price was refusing to sign off on the plan in the face of intense lobbying by federal Liberal MPs in Victoria". A few days later, Price gave ministerial approval to the Yeelirrie uranium mine in Western Australia. She had previously stated that she would wait for the outcome of a

Supreme Court of Western Australia The Supreme Court of Western Australia is the highest state court in the Australian State of Western Australia. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters (although it usually only hears matters involving sums of A$750, ...

case on state government approval of the mine before granting her own approval. Following the Coalition's re-election at the 2019 federal election, Price was removed from cabinet but retained in the outer ministry as

. This was widely reported as a demotion, with the ''

'' stating that she had been "unable to comfortably answer media questions about her portfolio". In her first speech in the portfolio, delivered to an

Australian Industry Group The Australian Industry Group, also called Ai Group, is an employers' organisation, whose members employ over 750,000 people throughout Australia. The organisation covers a wide range of industries including manufacturing, engineering, construc ...

meeting, she stated that she wanted to "maximise the involvement and success of Australian

SMEs Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems store energy in the magnetic field created by the flow of direct current in a superconducting coil which has been cryogenically cooled to a temperature below its superconducting critical ...

" in the defence industry. In March 2021, Morrison reappointed Price to cabinet, seeking to increase the proportion of women in the wake of

sexual misconduct allegations Sex is the biological distinction of an organism between male and female. Sex or SEX may also refer to: Biology and behaviour *Animal sexual behaviour **Copulation (zoology) **Human sexual activity **Non-penetrative sex, or sexual outercourse ** ...

. She was appointed to the Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise Governance Committee, a subcommittee of the National Security Committee. Price served in these roles until May 2022, following the appointment of the Albanese ministry.

Controversy

Price caused controversy in her role as Environment Minister by allegedly telling

Anote Tong Anote Tong (; born 11 June 1952 in Tabuaeran, Line Islands) is an I-Kiribati politician for the Pillars of Truth party and environmental activist with half Chinese heritage, who served as President of Kiribati, from 2003 to 2016. He won the elect ...

, the former president of Kiribati and climate change advocate, "I know why you're here. It is for the cash. For the Pacific it's always about the cash. I have my chequebook here. How much do you want?"

Personal life

Price's husband Colyn died in 2002 of

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

. The couple had one daughter, Rhiannon, who died in 2013 at the age of 18. Price was in a relationship with Brad Bell, a quantity surveyor, who has two children from a prior marriage. Price lived in

Geraldton Geraldton ( Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

, having "recently moved" after previously living outside of her electorate in the

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 ...

suburb of Marmion.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Melissa 1963 births Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Living people People from Kalgoorlie Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Durack Women members of the Australian House of Representatives 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Turnbull Government Women government ministers of Australia Morrison Government Alumni of London South Bank University University of Western Australia alumni Australian solicitors