Andrew Laming

Laming was one of seven Liberal MPs in the 46th Parliament of Australia who had obtained degrees at an Oxbridge or Ivy League university, the others being Alan Tudge, Angus Taylor, Josh Frydenberg, Dave Sharma, Greg Hunt and Paul Fletcher.

Andrew Charles Laming (born 30 September 1966) is an Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Bowman for the Liberal National Party of Queensland from 2004 to 2022.

He sat with the Liberal Party in federal parliament.

Laming was a medical practitioner and a management consultant before entering politics.

Laming was born on 30 September 1966 in Hobart, Tasmania.

He was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School.

He studied medicine at the University of Queensland and is a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

He also holds a Diploma in obstetrics and gynaecology from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, as well as a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, a Master of Public Policy from Charles Darwin University and a Master of Philosophy in Public Health from the University of Sydney.

He has worked in public health, economics, ophthalmology.

After graduating from the University of Queensland in 1990, Laming worked as a rural GP in Gundagai, New South Wales, and the rural Queensland towns of Goondiwindi, Mungindi, Dirranbandi and St George.

In 1991, he researched anterior cruciate ligament injuries at the Perisher ski fields.

He is the son of former Queensland state Liberal MP Bruce Laming, who held the seat of Mooloolah from 1992 until 2001, and served as Deputy Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

In 1992, he worked as a gym manager and rigger in South Africa as well as three months in Afghanistan clearing land mines with the British charity Halo Trust and doing basic war surgery with the International Council of the Red Cross in Kabul.

He continued obstetric training in 1993 with a diploma of obstetrics in Bromley and Farnborough Hospital in the UK.

Laming worked in the Northern Territory community of Lajamanu in 1995, combining ophthalmic surgery training and public health.

As part of a Master of Philosophy in Public Health, he was the principal researcher in evaluating single dose azithromycin for mass treatment of trachoma.

This treatment became standard practice partly as a result of Laming's research.

In 1999, Laming established FIDO – Friends In Deed Organisation – while completing ophthalmology training at Sydney Eye Hospital and Royal North Shore Hospital.

FIDO was Australia's first internet-based volunteering service which partners skilled volunteers with not-for-profit organisations.

He conducted eye disease surveys across the top end as an ophthalmic registrar and co-founded "RedANT" – Australia's first mobile eye disease database, earning a Master of Public Policy from Charles Darwin University in 2000.

In 2000, while studying for a Master of Public Administration at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Laming was one of three people who established the now annual Kennedy School Review.

He co-authored Let's Go Turkey in 2001 before joining the World Bank Group's Health Nutrition and Population section in Washington DC.

He then worked with the East Timor Transitional Authority as Health Planning Specialist as the country's health system was rebuilt.

At the 2001 federal election, Laming unsuccessfully challenged Con Sciacca in the federal seat of Bowman.

In 2002, Laming was employed as then Health Minister Kay Patterson's medical and public health advisor, then worked as an ophthalmologist, and a public sector consultant to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

After the 2004 federal redistribution in Queensland, Sciacca nominated for the newly created seat of Bonner, which contained historically safe Labor areas formerly in Bowman, and Laming secured the now notionally Liberal seat of Bowman, centred on Redland City.

These include the House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Communications, Information Technology and the Arts from 2004 to 2007, the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit from 2004 to 2007, the House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs from 2006 to 2010, the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties in 2007, and the House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations in 2008.

In his first parliamentary term, Laming was appointed to represent the government on the UNESCO National Commission and in 2005, he participated in the International Election Observer Mission as an observer of the election of Bougainville's first autonomous government.

Fido is now operated by The Centre for Volunteering in New South Wales and in 2006 it became known as Fido Skilled Volunteer Search.

In 2006, he was a contributor to the debate on a bill to lift the ban on the "abortion pill" RU486.

He said that while undergoing post-graduate training in obstetrics and gynaecology in London, he was required to perform late-term abortions which he found "harrowing".

He introduced an amendment to the bill, which would give Parliament a right of veto over the quasi-autonomous government drug regulator – the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

He failed to win support for the amendment and ultimately supported the bill.

At the 2007 federal election, it initially appeared on election night as if Laming had lost Bowman to Labor rival Jason Young on a large swing.

However, counting of pre-poll votes which progressed over the next couple of weeks placed Laming marginally ahead, and the Australian Electoral Commission eventually declared him the winner on a 0.04-point margin – just 64 votes ahead – having suffered a two-party-preferred swing of 8.86 points, compared with the Queensland state average of 7.53 points.

At the 2010 federal election, Laming was re-elected to the seat of Bowman with a swing of more than 10 points.

He was subsequently promoted to the position of Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Services and Indigenous Health and onto the front bench.

Through this shadow portfolio, Laming was critical of the Government's handling of intervention in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory.

Throughout his political career, Laming has served on a number of parliamentary committees.

In May 2013, Laming announced that he would maintain his registration as an eye specialist by applying to the newly constituted AHPRA; stating that this would give him the opportunity to volunteer in Aboriginal communities to perform eye exams and screen for disease to save surgeons time.