Biography
THE HON MICHELLE H ROBERTS BA DipEd MLA
Minister for Housing and Works; Indigenous Affairs; Heritage; Land Information
Member for Midland
Michelle Roberts was appointed Minister for Housing and Works; Heritage and Land Information in February 2006.
In December 2006, Michelle added Indigenous Affairs to her portfolios, and from March last year, until February 2008 her portfolio also included Employment Protection.
Through her portfolios, Michelle is committed to realising improvements that will benefit the lives of West Australian families and continue to make our State a better place to live.
Previously Michelle has held a number of ministries:
· Police and Emergency Services (2001 – 2006);
· Local Government (2001);
· Assisting the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure (2001);
· Justice (2003 - 2005);
· Community Safety (2003 –2006);
· Consumer Protection (2006); and
· Employment Protection (2007 – 2008).
As Police Minister, Michelle focussed on implementing community safety policies to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, and ensure there were more police on the frontline.
Michelle secured significant increases in the Police operating and capital budgets and drove the recruitment of an extra 250 police and the commitment to recruit a further 350 police and 160 support staff. She introduced anti-hoon laws, revolutionary DNA identification laws and tough child protection sex offender registration laws.
Michelle also extended the coverage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act to police officers, further demonstrating her support for frontline police.
Through Michelle’s leadership, more was achieved in emergency services in five years than had been contemplated in the preceding decades. Michelle led the implementation of the Emergency Services Levy to provide a fairer, more equitable and transparent system to fund emergency services, providing better support to emergency services staff and volunteers, particularly in regional areas.
For the first time ever, Michelle achieved legislative recognition and protection from civil liability for volunteers in the State Emergency Service, FESA units and Marine Rescue Services. This had been sought by the SES for more than 20 years.
Fire fighting and rescue response was revolutionised with the securing of state-of-the art aircraft including four helitacs – water bombing helicopters first introduced in 2003 – and the State’s emergency rescue helicopter, Rescue 1.
Michelle is especially determined to improve the possibilities available to the most vulnerable in our community. In her portfolio of Housing and Works, she has secured extra funding to assist first homebuyers and increase the stock of social housing. She is particularly keen to employ the synergies between her two portfolios of Housing and Works and Indigenous Affairs to achieve improved quality and quantity of housing for Indigenous people.
Background
Michelle entered public life in 1986 with her election to the City of Perth.
In 1992 she became the youngest ever Deputy Lord Mayor.
During her time with the City of Perth Michelle Roberts also served as a board member of the Perth Theatre Trust, The Festival of Perth and The East Perth Redevelopment Authority.
Michelle was elected to The State Parliament in 1994 and is the Member for Midland. Midland is the gateway to the Swan Valley and the Perth Hills. It is the home of the historic Midland Railway Workshops and the recently established Midland Redevelopment Authority.
Michelle Roberts was the first woman to be President of the WA ALP a position that she held for 7 years.
She is married to Greg, and has three daughters.