Tanya Plibersek is the Minister for the Environment and Water, and the Federal Member for Sydney. 

Tanya grew up in the Sutherland Shire of Sydney, the daughter of migrants from Slovenia. Like many newly arrived migrants, Tanya’s parents helped build the country in which they made their new home. Her father worked as a labourer on the Snowy River hydroelectric scheme in the 1950s, and later spent more than 20 years working for Qantas as a plumber and gas fitter.

Tanya studied Communications at UTS in Sydney. After graduating she worked in the Domestic Violence Unit of the NSW Government while she completed a Masters of Politics and Public Policy at Macquarie University.

Elected as the MP for Sydney in 1998, Tanya has tirelessly worked together with people in her local community to push for positive change. “My electorate has a history as a place where ordinary people have acted collectively to combat injustice and to fight for their rights. It has a Labor history.”

During the years of the Howard Government Tanya constantly campaigned for a return to social justice in government on issues such as paid parental leave, fairer rights at work and rights for same-sex couples. In 2003, when President George Bush visited Australia, Tanya presented national security adviser Condoleezza Rice with a letter explaining why Labor parliamentarians opposed Australia invading Iraq.

Tanya served as a Cabinet minister in the Gillard and Rudd Governments. Tanya was Minister for Health, Minister for Medical Research, Minister for Housing, Minister for Human Services, Minister for Social Inclusion, and Minister for the Status of Women.

Between 2013 and 2019, Tanya was Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party. During this time, she also held the positions of Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development, Shadow Minister for Education and the Shadow Minister for Women.

Tanya lives in Sydney with her husband Michael and her three children, Anna, Joseph and Louis.