Carmen Lawrence

Position: Friend
School and/or Centres: Herbert and Valmae Freilich Project

Biography

Every time a shock-jock or a politician depicts Indigenous Australians as violent drunks or Muslims as hostile to Australian values, and no one disagrees, these ideas gain credibility.

Dr Lawrence entered politics in 1986, serving at both State and Federal levels for 21 years. She was the first woman Premier and Treasurer of a State government. She retired from politics in 2007. She is now a Professorial Fellow at the University of Western Australia where she is working to establish a centre to research the forces driving significant social change in key areas of contemporary challenge as well as exploring our reactions to that change.