The Honourable Dr Meredith Burgmann AM

The Honourable Dr Meredith Burgmann AM has been an early feminist and anti-racism activist, an academic, a senior politician and a writer. Dr Burgmann holds a PhD from Macquarie University, where she taught industrial relations and politics for 18 years before entering state parliament in 1991. She was the President of the NSW Upper House from 1999 to 2007.

Dr Burgmann’s passion for politics is long standing. She was active in the Vietnam and apartheid protest movements at Sydney University, and spent time in prison for running onto the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1971 during the Springboks tour. She has been an outspoken feminist since the second wave women’s movement in the 1960s, and is a founding member of the National Pay Equity Coalition, the Campaign against Discrimination and Emily’s List.

Dr Burgmann has been awarded the Centenary Medal (2000), The Ordem de Timor-Leste Medalha (2016) and Member of the Order of Australia (2020).