Lawrence, Carmen Mary (1948–)

Australian politician and psychologist. Born Mar 2, 1948, in Northam, Western Australia, Australia; University of Western Australia, BS and PhD in psychology, 1971.

Politician who experienced meteoric rise in Labor Party to become 1st female state premier; was a tutor at University of Melbourne (1972–73), then lecturer at Univ. of Western Australia (1974–83); helped found Women's Electoral Lobby (1972) and joined Labor Party; worked in research services for Western Australian Department of Health (1983–1986); won election to Western Australian Legislative Assembly (1986), chaired Child Sexual Abuse Task Force (1986–88) and became minister of Education (1988); won re-election to Parliament (1989), then elected premier of Western Australia (1990), the 1st woman to head a state government; in "Penny Easton affair," was accused of lying about knowledge of political manipulation of court case which ultimately contributed to suicide of Easton; became opposition leader (1993); won by-election for federal seat of Fremantle (1994), accepting appointment as Health Minister in Keating government; faced additional damage to reputation when commission was appointed to rehash Easton case (1995); elected opposition frontbench and appointed shadow minister for Environment (1996); forced to resign after being charged with 3 counts of perjury in Easton case (1997); found not guilty (1999); returned to frontbench (2000) and served as shadow minister for Status of Women as well as Industry, Innovation and Technology (2000–01), then shadow minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Arts and Status of Women (2001–02); resigned from shadow cabinet (2002); elected president of Labor Party (2003).