Mehreen Faruqi

Mehreen Saeed Faruqi (born 8 July 1963) is a Pakistani-born Australian politician and former engineer who has been a Senator for New South Wales since 15 August 2018, representing the Greens. She was chosen to fill a casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Lee Rhiannon, before being elected in her own right in 2019. She had previously served in the New South Wales Legislative Council between June 2013 and August 2018. Since June 2022, Faruqi has served as Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens.

Senator
Mehreen Faruqi
Faruqi in 2015
Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens
Assumed office
10 June 2022
LeaderAdam Bandt
Preceded byNick McKim and Larissa Waters
Senator for New South Wales
Assumed office
15 August 2018
Preceded byLee Rhiannon
Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council
In office
19 June 2013 – 14 August 2018
Preceded byCate Faehrmann
Succeeded byCate Faehrmann
Personal details
Born (1963-07-08) 8 July 1963
Lahore, Pakistan
NationalityAustralian
Pakistani (formerly)
Political partyGreens
Alma materUniversity of Engineering and Technology, Lahore
University of New South Wales
OccupationEnvironmental engineer
WebsiteOfficial website

Early life

Faruqi was born on 8 July 1963[1] in Lahore, Pakistan.[2] Her father, a civil engineer, was a professor at the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) in Lahore and she grew up on the UET campus. She graduated from UET with a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) degree in 1988, and subsequently worked as a structural engineer. Her older brothers, younger sister, husband, and father-in-law are also civil engineers. Faruqi and her husband Omar moved to Sydney in 1992, where she began attending the University of New South Wales (UNSW); her father had previously studied there under the Colombo Plan in the 1950s.[3] She completed a Master of Engineering Science degree in 1994, and later received a doctorate in environmental engineering in 2000,[2] with her doctoral thesis titled "Intensification of anaerobic lagoons for abattoir wastewater treatment and biogas recovery".[4] Faruqi moved to Port Macquarie in 2001, but moved back to Sydney in 2006. She and her husband have two children together, including Osman Faruqi, a political journalist.[3]

Faruqi was one of three MPs in the 46th Parliament of Australia who graduated high school outside of Australia (the others being Gladys Liu and Kristina Keneally), and one of eleven MPs who possessed a PhD (the others being Katie Allen, Fiona Martin, Anne Aly, Andrew Leigh, Daniel Mulino, Jess Walsh, Adam Bandt, Jim Chalmers, Anne Webster and Helen Haines).[5]

Career

Engineering career

Before her appointment to the Legislative Council, Faruqi had a 25-year career as a professional engineer and academic. She worked in positions in local government, consulting firms and higher education institutions in Australia and internationally. These included roles such as Manager of Environment and Services at Mosman Council, Manager of Natural Resources and Catchments for Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, and as the Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at UNSW.[2]

At the time she was appointed to the New South Wales parliament, she was Academic Director of the Master of Business and Technology Program and an associate professor at the Australian Graduate School of Management for UNSW.[2]

State politics

Faruqi joined the Greens in 2004 in Port Macquarie and ran as a candidate for the Legislative Assembly seat of Heffron in 2011 and at the 2012 by-election. She was chosen to replace Cate Faehrmann in the Legislative Council in 2013, becoming the first Muslim woman to be a member of an Australian parliament.[6] Her term in the council began on 19 June 2013.[2]

In parliament, Faruqi held several portfolios for The Greens NSW: Animal Welfare, Drugs and Harm Minimisation, Environment, Lower Mid North Coast, Multiculturalism, Roads & Ports, Status of Women, Transport, Western Sydney, and Young People.[2]

Faruqi is a vocal pro-choice advocate, introducing the first parliamentary bill to decriminalise abortion in New South Wales in June 2014.[7] Faruqi is also an advocate for public transport and environmental sustainability. In March 2014, she successfully moved a motion in parliament ordering the release of all government documents relating to the creation of the business case for the WestConnex motorway. This uncovered evidence of the NSW government's plan for mass outsourcing of public service work[8] and uncertainty among WestConnex staff and advisers on the viability of the project.[9]

In February 2018, Faruqi attempted to block the Christian Friends of Israeli Communities from hosting an event on the basis of Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank.[10]

Faruqi resigned her position in the parliament after giving her farewell speech on 14 August 2018.[11]

Federal politics

On 25 November 2017, Faruqi defeated incumbent New South Wales Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon in a pre-selection contest for the first spot on the NSW Greens Senate ballot at the 2019 federal election.[12] Rhiannon resigned her Senate position on 15 August 2018 and on the same day Faruqi was appointed to fill the vacant seat by a joint sitting of the New South Wales Parliament.[1][13] She was sworn in on 20 August 2018, becoming the first female Muslim senator in Australian history.[14]

Faruqi was re-elected in the 2019 federal election, securing 8.7% of the state's vote, with a swing of 1.32 points in her favour.[15]

Following the 2022 federal election, Faruqi was elected as the Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens.[16]

Following the death of Elizabeth II, Faruqi stated “I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples" as she called for a republic. Faruqi was criticized for the comments, and said she was subject to racial abuse over them.[17][18]

Key published works
  • Harding, R, Hendriks, CM, and Faruqi, M. (2009). Environmental Decision-Making - Exploring complexity and context, Federation Press, Sydney. ISBN 9781862877481
  • Faruqi, M. (2012). 'Embracing Complexity To Enable Change', in: D. Rigling Gallagher; N. Christiansen and P. Andrews; eds, Environmental Leadership: A Reference Handbook, Vol. 2, pp. 772–781, Sage, Thousand Oaks, California. ISBN 9781412981514
  • Faruqi, Mehreen (2021). Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-76087-818-4.

Awards

References
  1. "Senator Mehreen Faruqi". Senators and Members of the Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  2. "Dr Mehreen Faruqi MLC". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  3. Greens' Mehreen Faruqi an engineer with a vision of diversity, The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 February 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  4. Faruqi, Mehreen S. (1999). Intensification of anaerobic lagoons for abattoir wastewater treatment and biogas recovery. University of New South Wales Library (Thesis). University of New South Wales. doi:10.26190/unsworks/8233. hdl:1959.4/62926. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  5. "Pathways to Parliament". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  6. "Muslim Green set for tough test".
  7. Corderoy, Amy (18 June 2014). "Greens launch push to decriminalise abortion in NSW". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  8. Saulwick, Jacob (27 March 2014). "Barry O'Farrell to outsource thousands of jobs". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  9. Saulwick, Jacob (4 April 2014). "WestConnex has a numbers issue: What are they?". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  10. "Greens MLC slams pro-Israel Christian group". The Australian Jewish News.
  11. "Legislative Council Hansard – 14 August 2018 – Proof". Parliament of New South Wales. 14 August 2018.
  12. "Lee Rhiannon loses NSW Greens preselection Senate spot to Mehreen Faruqi". ABC News. 25 November 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  13. "The New South Wales Parliament has selected Dr @MehreenFaruqi to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator @leerhiannon". Australian Senate. Twitter. 15 August 2018.
  14. "First female Muslim senator Mehreen Faruqi sworn in". SBS News. 20 August 2018.
  15. "Senate Results - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". ABC News. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  16. @adambandt (10 June 2022). "I thank my colleagues for their strong and continued support" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  17. "'Unhinged and insensitive': Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi slammed over 'appalling' tweet claiming Queen led 'racist empire'". Sky News Australia. 9 September 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  18. "Mehreen Faruqi's racism complaint over Pauline Hanson tweet accepted by Human Rights Commission". the Guardian. 6 October 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  19. "Awards honour women in engineering". Archived from the original on 23 May 2015.
  20. "20th Edna Ryan Awards" (PDF). Legislative Council, NSW Parliament. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  21. "President confers Pakistan civil awards on 253 personalities". Dunya News. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
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