Ms. Melissa Parke MP

Melissa Parke was elected as the federal member for Fremantle on 24 November 2007 at the general election that marked the beginning of the new Labor Government. She was returned for a second term in August 2010 and in February 2013 was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Mental Health, Homelessness and Social Housing. In July 2013 Melissa Parke was named Minister for International Development.

Until her elevation to the ministry in 2013, Melissa Parke served on the Joint Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade; Joint Standing Committee for Treaties; Joint Human Rights Committee; and was chair of the Joint Statutory Committee for the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.

She has also chaired numerous parliamentary groups, including the UN Parliamentary Group, UNICEF Parliamentary Association and Parliamentarians for Global Action.

In September 2013, Melissa was re-elected for a third term in parliament, and from October 2013 to February 2014, she served on the opposition frontbench as the Shadow Assistant Minister for Health.

Before entering parliament Parke spent eight years working for the United Nations as a senior lawyer. Parke began her employment with the UN Peacekeeping Mission on Kosovo within the Office of Legal Affairs in 1999, followed by two and a half years working in Gaza for the international legal division of UNRWA, the UN agency assisting the Palestinian refugees from 2002-2004. In mid-2004 Parke undertook a position in the UN headquarters in the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Management where she helped to establish the United Nations Ethics Office. In 2006 Parke became Deputy Chief of Staff and legal adviser to the United Nations Independent Investigation Commission inquiring into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In June 2007 Parke returned to Australia to contest the federal election in the seat of Fremantle.