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Leesa Vlahos
Leesa Vlahos
Member of the South Australian Parliament; for Taylor
	In office; 20 March 2010 – 17 March 2018
Preceded by	Trish White
Succeeded by	Jon Gee
Personal details
Born	Leesa Anne Chesser; 1966 (age 58–59); Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Australian Labor Party (SA)

Leesa Anne Vlahos, née Chesser^[1] (born 1966) is a former Australian politician. She represented the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Taylor for the Labor Party from the 2010 election until her retirement in 2018.^[2]

Background

Vlahos was born in Townsville, Queensland. As a child she became a Girl Guide and later continued to be involved with the scouting movement. She studied Health Administration at the Queensland University of Technology. She then worked in public and private hospitals in Brisbane and later the Repatriation Hospital in Daw Park, South Australia. Vlahos was the founding director of SA Progressive Business Inc. which acts as Labor's corporate events arm which links them with the business community.^[3]

Parliament

Vlahos was elected to the seat of Taylor after the retirement of the previous Labor member Trish White.^[4]

She is a former Presiding Officer of the SA Parliament Public Works Committee, a former member of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee, and a former member of the Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation. She was also a member of the Economic and Finance Committee.

She previously held offices as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier and assisted in the portfolio areas of Defence Industries, Veterans’ Affairs, Health, Mental Health and Substance Abuse and The Arts.

Vlahos was described by the Australian Financial Review as 'staunchly pro-nuclear' and advocated for nuclear power in Australia at the time that the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission commenced in March 2015. She is aligned with Labor's right faction.^[5] In a submission in response to the setting of the Commission's Terms of Reference she stated that "for years I have been an advocate for a modern and safe nuclear industry in our State."^[6]

Oakden Scandal

At the 2018 election, Vlahos would have been Labor's first-listed candidate on their upper house ticket,^[7] but she quit before the publication of the ICAC report into the Oakden scandal.

Cabinet

Vlahos' elevation to the Cabinet of South Australia in the Jay Weatherill government occurred in January 2016.^[8]^[9]

Vlahos represented the following portfolios in the Cabinet of South Australia:^[10]

Minister for Disabilities
Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse

She resigned from Cabinet on 17 September 2017 for personal health reasons, but announced that she intended to remain in the House of Assembly until the March 2018 election^[11]

Post Parliamentary Career

After leaving parliament, Leesa became a board member for the following organisations:

The Australian Physiotherapy Association^[12]
Neami National^[13]
Hen House Co-op^[14]
Community Options Australia ^[15]
+Life ^[16]

During 2022 she joined the Salzburg Global Seminar as part of the "Health and Economic Well-being: Gender Equity in Post-Pandemic Rebuilding" program^[17]

References

^ "Leesa Vlahos MP on Twitter". Twitter.
^ "Leesa Anne Vlahos". Former members of the Parliament of South Australia. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
^ "Leesa Vlahos". South Australian Labor. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
^ "Home - Electoral Commission SA". ecsa.sa.gov.au.
^ Evans, Simon (16 March 2015). "Labor MP Leesa Vlahos says pro-nuclear debate 'getting easier'". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
^ Vlahos, Leesa (15 February 2015). "Royal Commission into Nuclear Industry" (PDF). Retrieved 16 February 2018.
^ "Labor Upper House MLC John Gazzola to retire from politics at next election". The Advertiser. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
^ "Malinauskas, Vlahos confirmed as new members of SA Labor ministry". ABC News. 18 January 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
^ "Reshuffle, Peter Malinauskas and Leesa Vlahos join Jay Weatherill's Cabinet". The Advertiser. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
^ "Cabinet of South Australia". Premier.sa.gov.au. Archived from the original on 21 September 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
^ McGuire, Michael; Wills, Daniel (15 September 2017). "Vlahos Quits". The Advertiser. News Limited.
^ "APA Board welcomes new directors". Australian Physiotherapy Association. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
^ "Neami welcomes new and diverse Board Directors". neami national.
^ McLaren, Helen. "Now is the time to Create a more Compassionate World Post-COVID". diversity rewired. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
^ "Inaugural Future Director Award chooses six finalists for 2022". Future Directors.
^ "Inaugural Future Director Award chooses six finalists for 2022". Future Directors.
^ "Health and Economic Well-being: Gender Equity in Post-Pandemic Rebuilding". Salzburg Global. Retrieved 17 December 2023.

South Australian House of Assembly
Preceded by Trish White	Member for Taylor 2010–2018	Succeeded by Jon Gee
Political offices
Preceded by Tony Piccolo	Minister for Disabilities 2016–2017	Succeeded by Katrine Hildyard
Preceded by Jack Snelling	Minister for Mental Health & Substance Abuse 2016–2017	Succeeded by Peter Malinauskas