Meet Mark

Mark Speakman was elected as the Member for Cronulla in 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023. He has previously served as Attorney General, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence, Minister for the Environment and Heritage and Leader of the Opposition.

In his six years as Attorney General, Mark spearheaded reforms such as:

• Criminalisation of coercive control in intimate partner relationships
• Affirmative consent test in sexual assault
• Leading national defamation reforms
• Child abuse criminal and civil justice reforms, including new child abuse offices, removal of legal barriers to civil claims, challenging unfair settlements and making NSW the first state to legislate a child abuse redress scheme
• New offences of threatening or inciting violence based on race, religion and sexuality, displaying Nazi symbols without reasonable excuse, intimate image abuse and assaulting frontline health and emergence workers, as well as toughening the sentencing historical offences basing it on current sentencing patterns and practices
• Expansion of alternative pathways for drug users and Indigenous offenders, including the Drug Court and the Youth Koori Court.
• Funding to double refuge places for women escaping domestic violence and expansion of Staying Home Leaving Violence program
• Other legal reforms to domestic violence complainants, including stronger and longer apprehended domestic violence orders, court-appointed questioners instead of direct cross-examination by accused, more safe and remote witness rooms.

Born and raised in Caringbah, Mark attended Caringbah North Public School and Caringbah High School before studying law and economics at the University of Sydney and postgraduate law (first class honours and university medal) at the University of Cambridge. Mark was a partner in one of Australia’s largest law firms, before being called to the Bar in 1991 and becoming a Senior Counsel in 2004. Mark and his wife Caroline have two adult children.