Tanya Joan Plibersek (born 2 December 1969) is an Australian politician who has served as Minister for Social Services since 2025 and the member of parliament (MP) for the New South Wales division of Sydney since 1998. Previously, she served as the Minister for the Environment and Water from 2022 to 2025, deputy leader of the Labor Party from 2013 to 2019, and held ministerial offices in the Rudd and Gillard governments.
Plibersek was born in Sydney to Slovenian immigrant parents and grew up in Sutherland Shire. She has degrees from the University of Technology Sydney and Macquarie University, and worked in the NSW Government's Domestic Violence Unit before entering parliament. Plibersek was elected to the Division of Sydney at the 1998 federal election, aged 28. She joined the shadow cabinet in 2004, and when Labor won the 2007 election was made Minister for Housing and Minister for the Status of Women.
In a cabinet reshuffle in 2010, Plibersek was made Minister for Human Services and Minister for Social Inclusion. She was promoted to Minister for Health the following year, and held that position until Labor's defeat at the 2013 election. Plibersek was then elected as deputy to new ALP leader Bill Shorten. Plibersek served as deputy opposition leader until Labor's defeat at the 2019 Australian federal election. She was subsequently made shadow minister for education under new opposition leader Anthony Albanese. Upon Labor's victory at the 2022 Australian federal election, she was appointed Minister for the Environment and Water. After the 2025 federal election she was made Minister for Social Services in the Second Albanese ministry. She is a senior figure in the Labor Left faction.
Early life
Plibersek was born in Sydney, the youngest of three children born to Joseph and Rose Plibersek. Her elder brother Ray is a lawyer, and her eldest brother Phillip (d. 1997) was a geologist. Her parents were born in small Slovenian villages, arriving in Australia unknown to each other as part of the post-war immigration scheme. Her mother (née Rosalija Repič) was born in Podvinci, and came to Australia via Italy. Her father (né Jože Pliberšek) was born in Kočno pri Polskavi, and came to Australia via Austria. He found work as a labourer on the Snowy Mountains Scheme, and later spent 20 years working for Qantas as a plumber and gas fitter.Plibersek, The Hon Tanya, Member for Sydney, NSW , Citizenship Register – 45th Parliament, Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
Plibersek grew up in the suburb of Oyster Bay in Sydney's Sutherland Shire. She attended Oyster Bay Public School and Jannali Girls High School, where she was the dux. She joined the Labor Party at the age of 15. Plibersek studied journalism at the University of Technology Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in communications. She then took a Masters in Public Policy and Politics at Macquarie University. After a failed attempt to secure a cadetship with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), she found work with the Domestic Violence Unit at the New South Wales Government's Office for the Status and Advancement of Women. She found working with the state women's minister Kerry Chikarovski "demoralising" and later criticised her for focusing on the glass ceiling rather than other women's issues. Plibersek subsequently joined the office of Senator Bruce Childs, before switching to work for Senator George Campbell as a research officer.
Political career
Opposition (1998–2007) Plibersek was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1998 federal election, aged 28, retaining the Division of Sydney for the ALP following the retirement of Peter Baldwin. With the support of George Campbell's "hard left" faction, she won preselection for the seat against twelve other candidates, including ten other women. In the lead-up to the ballot she "wrote to each branch member three or four times, attended branch meetings virtually every night, gave talks to community groups, and contributed to three candidates' debates".
Plibersek supported Kim Beazley's unsuccessful candidacies in the 2003 ALP leadership votes, where he initially lost to Simon Crean and then later to Mark Latham. In July 2003 she and Anthony Albanese publicly criticised Crean for his rejection of the party's policy on a Second Sydney Airport.
After the 2004 election, Plibersek was elected to Latham's shadow ministry and allocated three portfolios – youth; the status of women; and work and family, community and early childhood education. In June 2005, after Latham was succeeded as opposition leader by Beazley, she retained the youth and status of women portfolios and was given responsibility for childcare. Upon the release of The Latham Diaries she described him as "a negative and critical person".
Plibersek publicly supported Beazley against Kevin Rudd in the 2006 leadership spill, though was retained in Rudd's shadow ministry after his defeat of Beazley, with the portfolios of youth; the status of women; and human services and housing.
Rudd and Gillard governments
Following the 2007 federal election, Plibersek was appointed Minister for Housing and Minister for the Status of Women in the First Rudd Ministry. Following the 2010 federal election, Plibersek was appointed Minister for Human Services and Minister for Social Inclusion. Her appointment took effect following the birth of Plibersek's youngest son Louis, and soon afterwards Plibersek directed the Human Services response to the 2010–11 Queensland floods. As Minister for Human Services, Plibersek established emergency and recovery centres to provide urgent support to flood-affected communities.
Housing
As Minister for Housing, Plibersek established the National Rental Affordability Scheme to build 50,000 affordable rental homes, invested $6 billion in social housing to build 21,600 new homes and repair 80,000 homes, and provided $550 million for homelessness services. The new housing was built ahead of time and under budget. She also established the Housing Affordability Fund and First Home Saver Accounts. In December 2008, along with Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister at that time, Plibersek released the Government's White Paper on Homelessness, The Road Home, which expressed a goal of halving homelessness by 2020. This goal was abandoned by the incoming Abbott government which cut homelessness funding and ended the National Rental Affordability Scheme and First Home Saver Accounts.
Women's issues As Minister for the Status of Women, Plibersek convened the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children in May 2008, and released the National Council's Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children in March 2009 – the first in Australian history. Plibersek also addressed the 2009 United Nations International Women's Day event, attended by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and announced Australia's formal accession to the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Plibersek said that acceding to the Optional Protocol "will send a strong message that Australia is serious about promoting gender equality and that we are prepared to be judged by international human rights standards."
Plibersek played a key role in designing and securing Australia's first paid parental leave scheme.
Plibersek also strengthened Australia's anti-people trafficking strategy, with a focus on better supporting victims including women in the sex industry.
As Shadow Minister for Women, Plibersek also committed the Labor Opposition to expanding access to abortions by making termination services legal in all taxpayer-funded hospitals. This policy was later dumped from Labor's election commitments under Albanese.
In Opposition, Plibersek supported women's economic security by committing the Labor Opposition to the removal of the $450 per month minimum income threshold for eligibility for the superannuation guarantee, a policy later adopted by the Liberal Government.
Plibersek also committed to forcing companies with over one thousand employees to disclose the gap in salaries between male and female staff. This was dismissed by the Morrison Liberal Government at the time as setting "one set of employees against another".
Health
As Minister for Health Plibersek established Grow Up Smiling, a $4 billion package to support better dental care for children, which expanded Medicare-subsided dental check-ups for children from age 2 to 17. She introduced free Gardasil vaccinations, previously only available for girls, for boys to protect against cancers caused by HPV – a world first. Along with the previous Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, Plibersek also implemented world-leading plain packaging of tobacco laws which saw smoking rates drop to 13%. Plibersek also added the RU486 abortion pill to the PBS, improving access to reproductive healthcare.
When Plibersek was Minister for Health, Australia achieved the best 5-year cancer survival rates in the world. Plibersek also delivered 1,300 more hospital beds and 60,000 additional doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. She also oversaw the funding, construction and/or opening of a number of new facilities, including the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Cancer Centre, the Kinghorn Cancer Centre, the Launceston Multi-Purpose Health Centre, and a new medical and dental school as well as new facilities for the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) in Adelaide.
Plibersek further added 87 new medicines to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) between 2012–2013. introduced the Living Longer Living Better reforms, allocating $1.2 billion to improve aged care services between 2012–2013, approved the first rapid HIV test for point-of-care use in Australia, providing results within an hour.
Opposition (2013–2022)
Plibersek was unanimously elected deputy leader of the Labor Party (and thus Deputy Leader of the Opposition) on 14 October 2013, following the leadership election that had seen Bill Shorten succeed Kevin Rudd as leader.Plibersek elected to be Bill Shorten's deputy, The Guardian, 14 October 2013. She was Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development until July 2016. Following the 2016 election, she was made Shadow Minister for Education and Shadow Minister for Women.Tanya Plibersek to take on education portfolio under Labor ministry changes, ABC News, 23 July 2016. Shorten said handing Plibersek the education portfolio was "about putting a great policy thinker on the political frontline".
Plibersek was re-elected at the 2019 election with a swing of 5.7 points to the Labor Party. Following the party's defeat at the federal election of 2019 and Bill Shorten's immediate resignation as party leader, Plibersek made it known that she was interested in standing in the leadership election, and was supported by Shorten and former prime minister Julia Gillard; however, she concluded that "now is not my time", citing family responsibilities.
After Anthony Albanese's victory in the leadership contest, Plibersek was appointed Shadow Minister for Education and Training in his new shadow cabinet. In January 2021 Albanese also appointed her Shadow Minister for Women.
Government (2022–present) Plibersek was appointed Minister for the Environment and Water in the first Albanese ministry.
Upon Peter Dutton's election as Leader of the Opposition, Plibersek compared Dutton to Lord Voldemort. In a radio interview, she stated:
Plibersek later apologised. In a radio interview, Dutton called the claims "unfortunate" but "water off a duck's back", also noting that he wasn't "bald by choice" and was diagnosed with a skin condition several years ago. Plibersek's apology was welcomed by newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an interview with ABC News.