Carmen Lawrence

Infobox_President | name =Carmen Lawrence


nationality =Australian
order =25th Premier of Western Australia
term_start =12 February 1990
term_end =16 February 1993
deputy =
predecessor =Peter Dowding
successor =Richard Court
birth_date =Birth date and age|1948|3|2|df=y
birth_place =Northam, Western Australia
death_date =
death_place =
constituency =Subiaco
Glendalough
Fremantle (federal)
party =Australian Labor Party
spouse =
profession =Politician
religion =


footnotes =|Dr. Carmen Mary Lawrence (born 2 March 1948), is an Australian politician; a former Premier of Western Australia and the first woman to become Premier of a State of the Commonwealth of Australia.

After leaving the State Parliament of Western Australia Lawrence became a Member of the House of Representatives in the Australian federal parliament.

Lawrence became the first directly-elected Federal President of the Australian Labor Party in 2003. She retired from parliament in November, 2007.

Early life

Carmen Lawrence was born in Northam, in the agricultural district of Western Australia and spent her early childhood in the towns of Gutha and Dongara.

She was one of seven children of Ernest Richard Lawrence, a farmer, and his wife Mary Norma (nèe Watson). From the age of six she was educated at various Roman Catholic boarding schools: Marian Convent at Morawa; Dominican Ladies College at Dongara and Santa Maria College at Attadale from which she matriculated in 1964 with distinctions in six subjects, a General Exhibition for Academic Achievement and a Special Subject Exhibition in economics.

Further education and employment

In 1965, Lawrence enrolled at the University of Western Australia in Perth, and graduated as a Bachelor of Psychology with First Class Honours in 1968, having won five prizes including that for the most outstanding graduate throughout the Faculties of Arts, Economics and Commerce, Law, Architecture and Education. She was also Senior Student for that year from Saint Catherine’s residential college.

She was politically active from an early stage. While at UWA she lobbied, successfully, to have the Campus Beauty Contest abolished. In Melbourne in the early 1970s she helped to found the Victorian Branch of the Women’s Electoral Lobby. [Australian Women Fact File site: [http://203.147.135.214/forms/factfiles/carmen.pdf] ]

She tutored at the University of Melbourne in 1971 and 1972, tutored and lectured at Curtin University from 1973 to 1978 and was a lecturer with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Western Australia from 1979 until 1983. During this period she continued with post-graduate research, having won two scholarships for PhD studies in psychology, and received the doctoral degree in 1983, for her dissertation "Maternal Responses to Infant Crying".

From 1983 until her election to parliament in 1986, Lawrence was employed in the Research and Evaluation Unit of the Psychiatric Services Branch of the Department of Health of Western Australia. [Australian Women Fact File site: [http://203.147.135.214/forms/factfiles/carmen.pdf] ] [ [http://john.curtin.edu.au/fremantle/lawrence.html Website for John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library] hosted by Curtin University.]

tate political career

Entry to State Parliament

During this period, Lawrence joined the Labor Party. She unsuccessfully contested the seat of East Melville at the 1983 election against sitting Liberal Party member Antony Trethowan, but was more successful in 1986 when she won the seat of Subiaco following the retirement of long-serving Liberal-turned-independent Dr Tom Dadour. In 1988, following the sudden departure of Brian Burke as Premier, she was appointed Minister for Education. At the 1989 election, her seat of Subiaco was abolished in a redistribution, and she won the new seat of Glendalough.

The Western Australian Labor government was in a state of crisis as a result of corruption allegations against the cabinets of two successive premiers, Brian Burke and Peter Dowding, the so-called "WA Inc" period.

Premier of Western Australia

In February 1990, Dowding was forced by his colleagues to resign. Lawrence, a prominent opponent within the Labor Party of Brian Burke's Right faction, of which Dowding was a member, replaced him as Premier on 12 February 1990.

Carmen Lawrence was the first female Premier of an Australian State. However, she was not the first female head of government of a province of the Commonwealth of Australia; being preceded by Rosemary Follett, who became Chief Minister of the ACT on 11 May 1989.

On 19 November 1990, Lawrence called a Royal Commission into matters related to the WA Inc deals, after considerable public and media pressure. The commission hearings began on 12 March 1991, and within months, the Labor party became a minority government as three left-wing MPs left the party to sit as independents. Coverage of the commission hearings dominated media headlines for most of the period from then until the 1993 election.

Two significant matters which characterised Lawrence's premiership were a public demand for a strong legislative response to juvenile crime and problematic investments in public transport infrastructure.

Juvenile crime

Between mid-1990 and early 1992, a number of high-speed chases involving cars stolen by repeat juvenile offenders resulted in the deaths of 10 people, including a businessman and several young parents. All received considerable media attention, most notably from 6PR's Howard Sattler. On 25 December 1991, 22-year-old Margaret Blurton and her infant son Shane were killed in a crash involving a 14-year-old offender in a stolen motor vehicle. Margaret's husband Peter survived, and gained public sympathy through bedside interviews to print and electronic media. A candlelight vigil was organised outside Parliament House on 4 January 1992, and exactly a month later, responding directly to the public call for action, Lawrence and deputy leader Ian Taylor tabled the "Crime (Serious and Repeat Offenders) Sentencing Bill 1992", [cite book|url=http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/22/stockwell.pdf|chapter=The role of the media in the juvenile justice debate in Western Australia|last=Stockwell|first=Charlotte|title=National Conference on Juvenile Justice|editor=Lynn Atkinson and Sally-Anne Gerull|isbn=0-642-19620-6|date=22 September 1992|accessdate=2008-03-27] which was rushed through parliament despite the advice of a committee that it was "unworkable and unsustainable". Peter Blurton established the Margaret and Shane Foundation to channel both his own grief and the immense public sympathy into a workable force to fight for the rights of crime victims. The law, however, turned out to be defective and Lawrence later declared it to have been a mistake. ["The West Australian", 9 March 1994, p.7.] The Act was repealed in June 1994.

Transport infrastructure

The other matter which preoccupied the Government was the ongoing construction of the Northern Suburbs Transit System, later to be known as the Joondalup railway line, which proceeded throughout Lawrence's term as Premier. She officially opened the line on 20 December 1992 and travelled on it with community leaders and selected members of the public, but the line was not opened for regular services until 21 March 1993. The Perth City Busport (now known as the Esplanade Busport), was opened on 30 November 1991 in an effort to centralise services travelling through the central business district—however, due to its distance from St Georges Terrace, it was branded a "white elephant" by the media and failed to significantly impact on CBD traffic. However, the station is still in use, and has since been integrated into the rail network following the opening of the Mandurah railway line in December 2007.

Easton petition

On 5 November 1992, a petition was tabled in the Legislative Council by Labor MLC John Halden which contained an allegation that the Opposition Leader Richard Court had leaked confidential information to a party in a divorce case. The petitioner was Brian Mahon Easton, a former Western Australian public servant. The alleged recipient of the leaked information was his former wife, Penny Easton. On 9 November 1992, she committed suicide. In Parliament on the following day, in response to an Opposition question, Lawrence denied prior knowledge of the petition. This episode subsequently became known as the "Easton affair".

Election defeat

In the election held on 6 February 1993, the Lawrence government was defeated by the Liberal-National coalition and Richard Court, who had replaced Barry MacKinnon as opposition leader just a year earlier, became Premier. Lawrence remained as Opposition Leader until early 1994.

In December 1993, Carmen Lawrence, Jim McGinty and Geoff Gallop joined in a petition to the High Court of Australia to challenge the franchise system for the Western Australian Legislative Council. The system of vote-weighting tended to favour the conservative parties and was a long-term obstacle to the ALP gaining control of the Council. On 20 February 1996 the new Chief Justice Brennan, Justice Dawson and McHugh, and the new Justice Gummow, rejected the challenge on the basis that the law was not unconstitutional.

Federal political career

Entry to Federal Parliament and Cabinet Ministry

On 12 March 1994, following the resignation of former Federal treasurer and member for Fremantle, John Dawkins, she won a by-election for the seat and entered federal politics. Fremantle was a moderately safe Labor seat which had once been held by Labor Prime Minister John Curtin, and later, Whitlam-era Education Minister Kim Beazley senior.

On 25 March 1994, she was appointed Minister for Human Services and Health and Minister assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women in the Keating government.

The Royal Commission

In May 1995, Premier Court requested the establishment of a Royal Commission to determine the circumstances of the tabling of the Easton affair petition. On 14 November 1995, the Royal Commission released a report which found that Lawrence had misled the Western Australian Parliament concerning her knowledge of and role in the tabling of the petition. Paul Keating denounced the Commission as a political stunt and accused the Commissioner, Kenneth Marks QC, of bias.

At the 1996 federal election, the Keating government lost office and, following Paul Keating's resignation of the leadership, Kim Beazley, a Western Australian, became the new Leader of the Opposition.

Lawrence was appointed to the Opposition frontbench as Shadow Environment Minister. On 21 February 1997, she was charged with three counts of perjury resulting from the findings of the Marks Royal Commission. She stood down from the shadow ministry pending her trial. She was acquitted on 23 July 1999.

Later political life

In September 2000 Beazley approved her reappointment to the Labor frontbench, and appointed her shadow minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, the Arts and Status of Women.

During the 2001 federal election campaign, Lawrence strongly disapproved of Beazley's support for the government's policy of detaining asylum seekers (see MV Tampa). In December 2002 she resigned from the Shadow Cabinet, describing the party's policies on asylum and immigration as "brutal and inhumane". [cite news
title =Carmen Lawrence breaks ranks with party over immigration policy
publisher = Australian Broadcasting Corporation
date =3 February 2002
url =http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200202/s472130.htm
accessdate = 2007-08-14 ]

She announced on 29 March 2007 that she would not recontest her seat in the Parliament at the 2007 Australian federal election. [cite news
title =Carmen Lawrence quits politics
publisher = AAP
date =29 March 2007
url =http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21468302-421,00.html
accessdate = 2007-08-14 ]

Presidency of the ALP

During 2002 the Labor Party approved a series of reforms proposed by new Opposition leader Simon Crean, among them the direct election of the party's National President by the party membership (the post had previously been filled by election at the party's National Conference) and a reduction of the union's representation at party conferences from 60% to 50%. Lawrence emerged as the candidate of the party's Left faction for the post, and the election took place in November 2003. Although she did not win an absolute majority of the votes, Lawrence topped the poll and was elected President, taking office on 1 January 2004, shortly after Mark Latham succeeded Crean as party Leader. She used the position to campaign in favour of a policy of better treatment for asylum seekers entering Australia. [cite news
title =The real test: Latham faces his party
publisher = Fairfax Digital
date =24 January 2004
url =http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/23/1074732599825.html?from=storyrhs
accessdate = 2007-08-14 ] Her term as National President ended on 1 January, 2005, when she was succeeded by Barry Jones.

After Parliament

As foreshadowed in her announcement of March 2007, Lawrence did not contest the federal election held on 24 November 2007, thereby retiring from Parliament.She was succeeded as Member for Fremantle by Melissa Parke, also of the ALP.

Following her departure from the federal Parliament, Lawrence was engaged for a term, in 2008, as a Professorial Fellow at the University of Western Australia. Her brief was to conduct collaborative research with a focus on the origins of fanaticism and extreme behaviour, including terrorism, under the auspices of the University's Institute of Advanced Studies. [University of Western Australia website: [http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/node/275 University News] ,] .

Notable public appearances and other engagements

*Lawrence delivered the John Curtin Memorial Lecture in 1994, speaking on the theme "Women and Labor - A Future Perspective". [Listed at The John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library's [http://john.curtin.edu.au/jcmemlect/index.html website] .]
*On 24 November 1994, Lawrence delivered a lecture at Curtin University titled, "My Invalid Carrot is the Prettiest of Them All" as part of the Elizabeth Jolley Lecture Series. [From Curtin University's Elizabeth Jolley Research Collection/Awards and Recognition [http://john.curtin.edu.au/jolley/awards_honours.html section] .]
*In 1995/96 Lawrence was named "Number One Ticket-Holder" for the Fremantle Football Club.
*In 2002, in her capacity as Shadow Minister for the Status of Women, Lawrence took part in the Canberra launch of the National Maternity Action Plan.
*From 2000 to 2004, she was a contributor to the Internet journal "Online Opinion". [Lawrence's page at [http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/author.asp?id=91 On-line Opinion] .]
*From 2002 to 2005, she was an intermittent contributor to Margo Kingston's "Webdiary". [Margo Kingston's post of Lawrence's valedictory speech to federal Parliament and links to archives of Lawrence's contributions to [http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node/2035 Webdiary] .]
*In 2005 she spoke in the Eminent Lecturer Series for the Herbert and Valmae Freilich Foundation which is hosted by the Australian National University. Her lectures on the theme "Fear and Public Policy" have since been published as a book titled "Fear and Politics" (listed in Publications section, below). [Freilich Foundation CV page for Lawrence and links to transcripts of the [http://www.anu.edu.au/hrc/freilich/events/archive/lawerence/lawrence.php lectures] .]
*On 19 February 2007, Lawrence was the principal guest at the launch of the web publication [http://john.curtin.edu.au/fremantle/ The federal electorate of Fremantle: A history since 1901] , an initiative of the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. [Events and Lectures page at JCPML [http://john.curtin.edu.au/events/index.html site] .]

Publications

*cite book |last=Lawrence|first=Carmen |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2006 |title =Fear and Politics| format=Pbk |publisher=Scribe Publications |location =Melbourne |id =ISBN 9781920769871
*cite book |last=Lawrence |first=Carmen |authorlink= |editor=Jo Coghlan |others=John Minns and Andrew Wells|title=Seeking Refuge |format=Pbk |year=2005 |publisher=University of Wollongong Press |location=Wollongong |isbn=1 920831 50 9 |chapter=Fear of the 'Other' and Public Policy
*cite book |last=Lawrence |first=Carmen |authorlink= |editor=Barry Jones |others= |title=Coming to the Party: where to next for Labor? |format=Pbk |year=2006 |publisher=Melbourne University Press |location=Melbourne |isbn=978 0 52285 283 7 |chapter=Political Corporations
*cite book |last=Lawrence |first=Carmen |authorlink= |coauthors= |editor=Kate Deverall |others=Rebecca Huntley, Penny Sharpe, Jo Tilly |title=Party Girls - Labor Women Now |format=Pbk |year=2000 |publisher=Pluto Press Australia |location=Sydney |isbn=1864031174 |chapter=The gender gap in political behaviour

References

External links

* [http://www.carmenlawrence.com/ Carmen Lawrence's website]
*Australian Women Fact File on [http://203.147.135.214/forms/factfiles/carmen.pdf Carmen Lawrence]
* [http://john.curtin.edu.au/fremantle/lawrence.html Carmen Lawrence page] at Website for John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library.
*Western Australian Electoral Commission data for the [http://www.waec.wa.gov.au/frames.asp?section=state 1993 W.A. State Election]
*Transcript of item from broadcast of 23 July 1999, concerning the perjury trial [http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/stories/s38678.htm acquittal of Carmen Lawrence] .
*Article from the "Austalian" newspaper of March 30, 2007 by Patricia Karvelas, on Carmen Lawrence's announcement of retirement from parliament: [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21472397-2702,00.html "Carmen leaves it to Kevin"]

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