Michaelia Cash

Designation: Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family

Country: Australia

Age: 51

Michaelia Clare Cash is an Australian politician who served as the 38th Attorney General of Australia for one year from 2021 to 2022. She has also been actively involved in the Australian political space and has held various ministerial positions. She was the Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business and Minister for Small and Family Business, Skills and Vocational Education from 2018 to 2021. She also served in the Turnbull government as the Minister for Jobs and Innovation and Minister for Employment and Minister for Women from 2015 to 2018.

Cash was born in Subiaco, Western Australia on 19 July 1970 to Ursula Clare Yelland and Samuel Ernest “George” Cash. She is one of four children and grew up in the Perth suburb of Mount Lawley. She met her long-time husband Richard Price while working together at the same law firm. She has been battling with psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis from a young age.

Cash completed her high school education from Iona Presentation College, a Catholic school in Mosman Park. She graduated from Curtin University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a triple major in politics, public relations, and journalism. She holds an Honours Degree in Law from the University of London and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Western Australia. Cash is a member of the Liberal Party. She joined the Party in 1988 and kickstarted her political career as the executive member of the Curtin University Young Liberals from 1988 to 1990.

Cash is also an experienced lawyer, beginning her career as a solicitor with the law firm Freehills where she worked for almost 10 years. As a lawyer, her area of expertise includes employment and industrial law including industrial relations, equal opportunity, employee relations, occupational health and safety, executive employment and unfair dismissal.

Michaelia Cash has been a Senator for Western Australia since 2008. She held important positions in both the Abbot and Morrison ministry. She is considered as a controversial figure in Australian politics as she has been involved in various controversies throughout her career. The surprise raiding of the Australian Workers’ Union offices, her refusal to release a report into an 18-year-old who died while on a Work for the Dole assignment in April 2016, Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill, 2018 were all events that added to her divisive political image.