Dave Sharma

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

Devanand Noel "Dave" Sharma (born 21 December 1975) is an Australian politician and former public servant and diplomat who has served as Senator for New South Wales since November 2023.

Sharma was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1975.

His father is a Trinidadian of Indian heritage and his mother was from Sydney.

His family moved to Turramurra in Sydney, in 1979.

Sharma's mother died of breast cancer, and he was raised by his father.

Sharma attended secondary school at Turramurra High School in Sydney.

He matriculated in 1993 with the highest possible Tertiary Entrance Rank of 100.

Sharma studied a Bachelor of Arts at Cambridge University between 1994 and 1997.

He initially studied natural sciences but transferred to law in 1995 (his second year) and graduated in law with first class honours.

He then returned to Sydney and studied medicine at Sydney Medical School.

Following a year of studying medicine, he began working as a public servant for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and completed a master's degree in International Relations through Deakin University.

Sharma began working for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1999 and held posts both in Australia and overseas.

From 2004 to 2006 he served as the legal adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and was then appointed to the Australian Embassy in Washington from 2006 until 2009.

Sharma held appointments at the Australian High Commission to Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, and as a senior civilian adviser with the Peace Monitoring Group on Bougainville.

He previously served as head of the International Division of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (2010–2012) and as Ambassador to Israel (2013–2017).

His appointment to the latter post, at the age of 37, made him one of Australia's youngest ambassadors and the second Australian ambassador of Indian heritage.

From 2010 to 2012 Sharma was the head of the International Division in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

He advised the Prime Minister Julia Gillard during G-20 summits (including as the Prime Minister's sous-sherpa) and East Asia summits and was involved in international diplomatic events which occurred in Australia including the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in October 2011 and during US President Barack Obama's visit to Australia in November 2011.

Sharma served as the Assistant Secretary, responsible for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Africa Branch between 2012 and 2013.

In November 2012, Sharma led a visit to Abuja, Nigeria and participated in talks with the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Security Adviser as well as with officials from the Economic Community of West African States.

Sharma was appointed the ambassador to Israel by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bob Carr, on 16 May 2013 replacing Andrea Faulkner.

Sharma presented his credentials to Israeli President Shimon Peres on 8 August 2013.

While in Israel, Sharma and his wife Rachel visited casualties of the Syrian civil war in the Ziv Medical Center in Zefat.

This visit made him the first international representative to visit casualties of the war.

In May 2014, Sharma caused a diplomatic incident by meeting with the Israeli Housing and Construction Minister, Uri Ariel, in Israeli government offices located in occupied East Jerusalem, resulting in a formal complaint from the chief Palestinian UN negotiator to Julie Bishop, the then Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, that the meeting may be deemed as "aiding and abetting … illegal Israeli policies".

Australia rejected these complaints, saying the meeting did not alter its position regarding the status of Jerusalem and the need to resolve this through direct negotiations.

Australia had first issued an extradition request in 2014 after Leifer had fled to Israel in 2008 following allegations that she had raped and abused students while serving as Principal of the orthodox Adass Israel School.

In April 2017, Julie Bishop announced that Chris Cannan would succeed Sharma as Ambassador to Israel in mid-2017.

Cannan began his appointment as ambassador on 19 June 2017.

Sharma was chairman of Shekel Brainweigh Ltd, an Israeli technology company.

He was reported to be helping a number of other Israeli technology companies to enter the Australian market.

Following the August 2018 resignation of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, Sharma was selected as the Liberal Party candidate for the resulting Wentworth by-election, defeating Prime Minister Scott Morrison's preferred candidate.

Sharma contested the Wentworth by-election against a field of 15 other candidates with independent candidate Kerryn Phelps, a former City of Sydney Councillor and AMA President, widely regarded as Sharma's most serious competitor.

Phelps would go on to win the Wentworth by-election with 51.22% of the TCP vote, defeating Sharma after favourable preference flows.

Prior to that, he served as the member for Wentworth in the House of Representatives from 2019 to 2022, when he lost the seat to independent challenger Allegra Spender.

He is a member of the Liberal Party.

Sharma was again pre-selected to run as the Liberal candidate for Wentworth at the 2019 Australian federal election, and was successful in winning the seat from Phelps with 51.31% of the TCP vote.

Sharma is a member of the Moderate/Modern Liberal faction of the Liberal Party.

On 10 February 2020, Sharma moved a bipartisan motion in the House of Representatives with Labor MP Josh Burns calling for the immediate extradition of alleged pedophile Malka Leifer from Israel, having developed an interest in the case during his term as Australia's ambassador to Israel.