Biography

Parliamentary service

• Elected to the House of Representatives for Cowan, Western Australia, 2016. Re-elected 2019 and 2022.

Ministerial appointments

• Minister for Youth from 1.6.2022.
• Minister for Early Childhood Education from 1.6.2022.

Committee service

• Joint Statutory: Law Enforcement (formerly National Crime Authority from 15.6.1984 to 1.1.2003 and Australian Crime Commission from 1.1.2003 to 24.11.2010) from 15.9.2016 (Deputy Chair from 24.7.2019); Intelligence and Security from 3.9.2020.
• Joint Standing: Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade from 15.9.2016 to 1.7.2019.
• Joint Select: Australia's Family Law System from 22.10.2019 to 22.11.2021.
• House of Representatives Standing: Economics from 22.7.2019 to 8.10.2020.

Personal

• Born 29.3.1967, Alexandria, Egypt
• Married

Qualifications and occupation before entering Federal Parliament

• PhD (Edith Cowan University).
• MEd (Edith Cowan University).
• PGDA (Edith Cowan University).
• BA (American University of Cairo).
• Senior Policy Officer at the Department of Education and Training (WA), from 2001 to 2002.
• Senior Policy Officer at the Office of Multicultural Interests (WA) from 2002 to 2007.
• Manager of Training and Education at the Equal Opportunity Commission (WA) from 2007 to 2008.
• Senior Lecturer at Curtin University and Edith Cowan University from 2011 to 2014.
• Associate Professor at Curtin University from 2014 to 2015.
• Professorial Fellow, 2015.

Electorate

• Name: Cowan
• Location: Cowan covers an area from Tapping and Wanneroo in the north to Kiara and Lockridge in the south. The division covers the City of Joondalup, the City of Wanneroo and the City of Swan. It includes the suburbs of Alexander Heights, Ashby, Ballajura, Beechboro, Bennett Springs, Cullacabardee, Darch, Girrawheen, Gnangara, Greenwood, Hocking, Jandabup, Kiara, Kingsley (part), Koondoola, Landsdale, Lockridge, Madeley, Malaga, Marangaroo, Pearsall, Sinagra, Tapping, Wangara, Wanneroo, Warwick and Whiteman.
• Area: 180 Sq km
• Electors enrolled: 98,665 (at 7.6.2019)
• Industries: Mainly retail and service industries, with some light industry, manufacturing and market gardens.

Honours

• Member, WA Women's Hall of Fame, 2011.
• Australian Security Medal, 2016.

Publications

• Chapter with A Balnaves and C Chalon in 'Recent Advances in Security Technology', P Mendis , J Lai, E Dawson and H Hussein Abbass (eds.), Proceedings of the 2007 RNSA Security Technology Conference Australian Homeland Security Research Centre Melbourne 2007.
• Chapter in 'Doomed to Repeat: Terrorism and the Lessons of History', S Brawley (ed.) New Academia Press Canberra 2009.
• Chapter in 'Beyond the Hijab Debates: New Conversations on Gender, Race and Religion', T Dreher and C Ho (eds.) Cambridge Scholars Press 2009.
• Social Implications of Fearing Terrorism: A report on Australian responses to the images and discourses of terrorism and the other: Establishing a metric of fear (ed. with L Green) Edith Cowan University Perth 2009.
• Proceedings of the 1st Australian Counter Terrorism Conference (ed.) SECAU Perth 2010.
• A study of audience responses to the media discourse about the 'Other': the fear of terrorism between Australian Muslims and the broader community Edwin Mellen Press Lampeter 2010.
• Chapter with L Green in 'Strangers, Aliens and Foreigners' Inter-Disciplinary.Net [eBook] 2010.
• Chapter in 'Muslims in Australia', S Yasmeen (ed.) Melbourne University Press Melbourne 2010.
• Chapter in 'Afghanistan: The Old-New Geopolitical Blackhole' Future Directions International Perth: 2011.
• Chapter with L Green in 'Negotiating Identities: Constructed Selves and Others', H Vella Bonavita (ed.) Rodopi New York: 2011.
• Terrorism and Global Security: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Palgrave Macmillan 2011.
• Chapter in 'Subjective Well Being and Security', D Webb and E Wills Herrera (eds.) Springer New York: 2012.
• Chapter in 'The Political Psychology of Terrorism Fears', D Antonius and SJ Sinclair (eds.) Oxford University Press New York: 2013.
• Chapter in 'Spooked: The truth about Intelligence in Australia', D Baldino (ed.) New South Books Melbourne: 2013.
• Countering Violent Extremism 2013: Official Report Curtin Perth 2013.
• Chapter in 'Counter-radicalisation: Critical Perspectives', L Jarvis and C Health-Kelly (eds.) Routledge London: 2014.
• Countering Violent Extremism: Developing an evidence base for policy and practice (ed. with S Zeiger) Curtin University Perth 2015.
• Violent Extremism Online, (Ed. with T Chen, S McDonald and L Jarvis) Routledge London 2016.