Amber-Jade Sanderson

Her parents were Ten Pound Poms who had immigrated from England to Perth as teenagers during the 1970s.

She spent her early childhood in Bayswater, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth.

When she was about five years old, her parents separated.

Amber-Jade Sanderson (born 25 October 1976) is an Australian Labor Party politician who is the member for Morley in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Western Australia.

Since 21 December 2021, she has been Minister for Health and Minister for Mental health.

From 19 March 2021 to 21 December 2021, she was Minister for Environment, Minister for Climate Action and Minister for Commerce.

She rose to prominence when she chaired the Joint Select Committee on End of Life Choices.

Amber-Jade Sanderson was born on 25 October 1976 in Mascot, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney.

She moved to London with her mother in 1986, and started living in England for the most part over the following 14 years.

She attended eight or nine different schools in total, including St Columba's School, Bayswater Primary School and John Forrest Secondary College in Morley.

At Cardiff University, Sanderson studied journalism with a focus on politics.

She then worked in public affairs in London.

This was Western Australia's first nurses strike since 1998, and led to the cancellation of hundreds of elective surgeries.

In 2001, she moved back to Perth and started working as a media advisor for the federal member for Fremantle, Carmen Lawrence.

Sanderson's parents and siblings moved to Perth a couple of years later.

For about ten years, Sanderson worked for the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (renamed in 2011 to United Voice), rising as far as assistant state secretary.

Soon after becoming assistant secretary of United Voice, Sanderson was preselected by the Labor Party as the third candidate on their ticket for the East Metropolitan Region of the Western Australian Legislative Council, the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia.

From 22 May 2013 to 5 February 2017, she was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council, the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia, for the East Metropolitan Region.

She was elected at the 2013 state election, with her term commencing on 22 May 2013.

From 16 October 2013 to 5 February 2017, Sanderson was deputy chair of committees.

On 5 February 2017, Sanderson resigned from the Legislative Council in order to run for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly (lower house) seat of Morley.

The seat was traditionally a Labor seat, but it had been won at the previous two elections by Liberal MP Ian Britza.

She was elected to that seat at the 2017 election with 61.4% of the two-party-preferred vote and a 16.2% two-party-preferred swing.

From 17 March 2017 to 19 March 2021, Sanderson was the parliamentary secretary to Mark McGowan, who was the premier, minister for public sector management, minister for state development, jobs and trade, and minister for federal-state relations, as well as parliamentary secretary of the cabinet.

In August 2017, Sanderson moved a motion for the establishment of the Joint Select Committee on End of Life Choices, with the purpose of reporting on the "need for laws in Western Australia to allow citizens to make informed decisions regarding their own end of life choices".

The motion passed, and so from 23 August 2017 to 23 August 2018, she was on that committee, including as chair from 4 September 2017.

This committee presented the "My Life, My Choice" report in August 2018, recommending voluntary assisted dying be allowed when "grievous and irremediable suffering related to an advanced and progressive terminal, chronic or neurodegenerative condition [...] where death is a reasonably foreseeable outcome of the condition".

Parliament later passed voluntary assisted dying into law, and Sanderson's role in this gained her prominence and speculation that she would one day become the minister for health or premier.

At the 2021 state election on 13 March 2021, Sanderson was re-elected as the member for Morley, with a two-party-preferred vote of 78.6% and a two-party-preferred swing of 16.2%.

Five days later, she joined the Western Australian cabinet when she was appointed as the minister for commerce, minister for environment and the newly created position of minister for climate action.

She relinquished those ministries when, on 21 December 2021, Sanderson became the minister for health and mental health, replacing Roger Cook.

Reece Whitby succeeded Sanderson as the minister for environment and minister for climate Action, and Roger Cook succeeded her as the minister for commerce.

During 2022 and 2023, Sanderson has been having conflicts with the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) over the pay rates and work conditions for nurses.

The ANF was demanding a 10 percent annual pay rise, above the government-wide three percent set out in the public sector wages policy.

Other demands were for the one-off $3,000 "cost of living" payment to be increased to $4,500 and the institution of nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios.

Starting in October 2022, the ANF began a seven-week series of escalating industrial action.

Sanderson said "my message to the ANF and to nursing staff is stand down, it is not necessary to take such extraordinary industrial action at this point".

Sanderson then offered the ANF that the nurse-to-patient ratios be implemented but no change to the pay rise, which the union voted overwhelmingly to reject.

By 22 November, the ANF had changed its pay rise demands to a five percent pay rise.

The ANF and the government had still not reached a deal after that, so over 3,500 ANF members went on strike from 7am to 9pm on 25 November, despite an order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission not to go on strike.