Name Leesa Vlahos | ||
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Leesa Anne Vlahos, née Chesser (born 1966) is an Australian politician, representing the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Taylor for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party since the 2010 election.
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Background
Vlahos was born in Queensland. As a child she became a Girl Guide and later continued to be involved with the scouting movement. She studied Health Administration at the Queensland University of Technology. She then worked in public and private hospitals in Brisbane and later the Repatriation Hospital in Daw Park, South Australia. Vlahos was the founding director of SA Progressive Business Inc. which acts as Labor's corporate events arm which links them with the business community.
Parliament
Vlahos was elected to the seat of Taylor after the retirement of the previous Labor member Trish White.
She is a former Presiding Officer of the SA Parliament Public Works Committee, a former member of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee, and a former member of the Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation. She was also a member of the Economic and Finance Committee.
She previously held offices as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier and assisted in the portfolio areas of Defence Industries, Veterans’ Affairs, Health, Mental Health and Substance Abuse and The Arts.
Vlahos was described by the Australian Financial Review as 'staunchly pro-nuclear' and advocated for nuclear power in Australia at the time that the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission commenced in March 2015. She is aligned with Labor's right faction.
At the 2018 election, Vlahos will be Labor's first-listed candidate on their upper house ticket.
Cabinet
Vlahos' elevation to the Cabinet of South Australia in the Jay Weatherill government occurred in January 2016.
Vlahos represented the following portfolios in the Cabinet of South Australia:
She resigned from Cabinet on 17 September 2017 for personal health reasons, but announced that she intended to remain in the House of Assembly until the March 2018 election, and stand for a seat in the Legislative Council at that election.