External links
 | This article about a Liberal Party of Australia politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Renee Heath | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Victorian Legislative Council | |
| Assumed office 26 November 2022 | |
| Constituency | Eastern Victoria Region |
| Secretary of the Parliamentary Liberal Party [1] | |
| Assumed office 20 December 2022 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Morwell [2] |
| Political party | Liberal Party |
| Website | https://www.reneeheath.com.au |
Renee Heath is an Australian politician who is a current member for Eastern Victoria Region in the Victorian Legislative Council. [1] She is a member of the Liberal Party and was preselected for the 2022 state election,defeating Cathrine Burnett-Wake as the first person on the Liberal Party's group voting ticket for the Eastern Victoria Region. [3]
Heath is a lifelong member of the "ultra-conservative City Builders' church," a church led in Australia by her father that is accused of having historic links to gay conversion practices. [4] Her preselection was controversial and viewed as a victory for the conservative faction of the Liberal Party over its moderate faction. [5] At the time of Heath's preselection,other Eastern Victorian Liberals and former members of the City Builders church spoke out about the church's "ambitions to shift Victorian politics to the hard right." [6]
Following revelations of Heath's role in the church and its opposition to gay,transgender and reproductive rights,Liberal leader Matthew Guy announced prior to the election that if and when elected,Heath would not be allowed to join the Liberal Party's parliamentary caucus. [7] [8] This followed criticism by her Liberal Party predecessor,Cathrine Burnett-Wake,who in her final speech in parliament called on "ordinary people" to "awaken" to extremist political candidates. Burnett-Wake referred to the 'taking over' of Liberal Party branches in Gippsland by right-wing church groups and told the parliament she was concerned about infiltration of the Liberal party by people with "extremist" views - widely interpreted as a reference to Heath. [9]
Following Heath's election and Guy stepping down as leader of the party,this decision to exclude Heath from the parliamentary party was overturned by new Liberal leader John Pesutto. [5] Heath was also appointed by Pesutto to be the Secretary of the Parliamentary Liberal Party for the 60th Parliament of Victoria. [10] In her inaugural speech,Heath stated that "Victorians should not be told what to think,what to say,how to worship,how to raise their children. This is symptomatic of a failed socialist experiment which has reinvented itself as a cultural movement in our time." [11] On the 12th of May 2023,Heath was demoted from Secretary of the Parliamentary Liberal Party in the wake of a caucus meeting held to vote on the expulsion of fellow Liberal MP Moira Deeming,in which Heath produced three different versions of minutes,one of which was leaked to the media. [12] Heath is considered a close ally of Deeming. [13]
In August 2023,Heath appeared ‘at two events attended by conspiracy theorists’that promoted conspiracies about vaccinations and the ‘deracinating’of Australia. [14] In 2024,Heath abstained from voting in support of the Labor government’s wind energy target,despite support from the Liberal opposition. [15]
| | This article about a Liberal Party of Australia politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
The electoral district of Hawthorn is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It was first proclaimed in 1888, taking effect at the 1899 election.
Bernard Thomas Christopher Finn is a former Australian politician who was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council representing the Western Metropolitan Region from the election of November 2006 until he lost in the November 2022 election. He was previously the member for the electoral district of Tullamarine in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from October 1992 until September 1999.
Matthew Jason Guy is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party member of the Parliament of Victoria since 2006, representing the Northern Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council (2006–2014) and Bulleen in the Legislative Assembly (2014–present). He was Leader of the Opposition in Victoria and state leader of the Liberal Party from 2014 to 2018, when he resigned the leadership after the Liberal Party's landslide defeat in the 2018 Victorian election. From 7 September 2021, Guy again served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Liberal Party in Victoria, but he again resigned after another heavy defeat in the 2022 state election.
Graham Travis Watt is an Australian politician. He was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 2010 to 2018, representing the seat of Burwood. He is a member of the Liberal Party.
Bradley William Battin is an Australian politician who currently serves as the Liberal Party member for Berwick in the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 2022. He was previously the member for Gembrook from 2010 until the seat was abolished in 2022 following the 2021 Redistribution. He was formerly a police officer and owned a bakery in Wheelers Hill.
David James Southwick is an Australian Liberal politician, and has been the member for Caulfield in the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 2010. Southwick has been the Parliamentary Secretary for Police and Emergency Services and is currently Shadow Minister for Jobs and Employment, Shadow Minister for Events Industry, Shadow Minister for Business Recovery, Shadow Minister for CBD Recovery, Shadow Minister for Small Business and Shadow Minister for Business Precincts. As of 7 September 2021, Southwick is the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in Victoria.
John Pesutto is an Australian politician and lawyer serving as the Leader of the Opposition in Victoria, holding office as the leader of the Victorian Branch of the Liberal Party of Australia. He has been a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the inner-city division of Hawthorn since 2022, and previously from 2014 to 2018.
Christopher John Crewther is an Australian politician. He was a Liberal Party of Australia member of the Australian House of Representatives from 2016 to 2019 before being elected to the Victorian State Parliament, representing the division of Mornington in 2022.
The Victorian Liberal Party, officially known as the Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division) and branded as Liberal Victoria, is the state division of the Liberal Party of Australia in Victoria. It was formed in 1944. It became the Liberal and Country Party (LCP) in 1949, and simplified its name to the Liberal Party in 1965.
James Benjamin Kingsley Newbury is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since November 2018, representing the seat of Brighton. Newbury is the currently the Shadow Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Equality, and the Manager of Opposition Business.
The 2022 Victorian state election was held on Saturday, 26 November 2022 to elect the 60th Parliament of Victoria. All 88 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 40 seats in the Legislative Council were up for election at the time the writs were issued, however the election in the district of Narracan was deferred due to the death of a candidate.
Matthew Donald Andrew Bach is an Australian teacher, historian, and former politician. He served as a Liberal Member of the Victorian Parliament from 2020 to 2023, representing the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council. Bach also served as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, and as a frontbencher in the Shadow Cabinets of Michael O'Brien, Matthew Guy, and John Pesutto.
Cathrine Mary Burnett-Wake is a former Australian politician, who was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council for the Eastern Victoria Region representing the Liberal Party between December 2021 and November 2022. Burnett-Wake was appointed by a joint sitting of the Victorian Parliament on 2 December 2021 to fill a vacancy brought about by the resignation of Edward O'Donohue. She is the first Liberal female upper house member for Eastern Victoria.
This is a list of the candidates of the 2022 Victorian state election.
Moira Deeming is an Australian politician. She is a former member of the parliamentary Liberal Party and is currently an Independent Liberal member of the Victorian Legislative Council, representing the Western Metropolitan Region since November 2022. She was previously a councillor for the Melton City Council representing the Watts Ward.
The 2026 Victorian state election is expected to be held on 28 November 2026 to elect the 61st Parliament of Victoria. All 88 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 40 seats in the Legislative Council will be up for election, presuming there are no new electorates added in a redistribution.
The 2022 Liberal Party of Australia leadership election was an election to appoint the leader of the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition after the 2022 Victorian state election. Matthew Guy, who had held these roles since September 2021 and previously in 2018 resigned after the Coalition's defeat to the Australian Labor Party at the November election.
Ann-Marie Hermans is an Australian politician affiliated with the Liberal Party and is a member of the Victorian Legislative Council, representing the South Eastern Metropolitan Region since November 2022. Upon her election to the Legislative Council, she was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Emergency Services and Shadow Minister for WorkCover and the TAC within the Pesutto shadow cabinet. Before joining the Liberals, she ran for Family First at the 2006 Victorian state election.
Independent Liberal is a description used in Australian politics, often to designate a politician who is a Liberal Party member but not endorsed by the party at elections, or refers to a person who is a member of a parliament and a member of the Liberal Party, but has been expelled or removed from the Liberal party room.
The 2023 Warrandyte state by-election was held on 26 August 2023 to elect the next member for Warrandyte in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, following the resignation of Liberal MP Ryan Smith.