Linda Lavarch

Linda Lavarch
Attorney-General of Queensland
In office 28 July 2005 – 18 October 2006
Premier	Peter Beattie
Preceded by	Rod Welford
Succeeded by	Kerry Shine
Member of the Queensland Parliament for Kurwongbah
In office 24 May 1997 – 20 March 2009
Preceded by	Margaret Woodgate
Succeeded by	Seat abolished
Personal details
Born	(1958-11-27) 27 November 1958 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Labor
Alma mater	Queensland University of Technology
Profession	Solicitor

Linda Denise Lavarch (born 27 November 1958, in Brisbane) is an Australian politician and solicitor. She was a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1997 to 2009, representing the district of Kurwongbah.

Lavarch was first elected to the seat of Kurwongbah, situated in Brisbane's northern suburbs, in a by-election on 24 May 1997. On 28 July 2005, Lavarch was appointed Queensland's Attorney-General and Minister for Justice—the first woman to hold a substantive role as Attorney-General in Queensland (Joan Sheldon had held the role in an interim capacity for seven days in 1996). Prior to being appointed Attorney-General, she held the position of parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Energy and Aboriginal and Minister for Torres Strait Islander Policy, John Mickel.

Lavarch pursued an active reform agenda as Attorney-General particularly focusing on community justice initiatives and the treatment of vulnerable people in the criminal justice system. She retired at the 2009 state election.

Lavarch currently chairs the Australian government's Not-For-Profit Sector Reform Council which provides advice to government on not-for-profit sector issues.

She was formerly married to Michael Lavarch, who had served as an Attorney-General at the federal level from 1993 to 1996.

On 27 April 2016, Lavarch was announced as the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Dickson at the 2016 election, eventually losing to Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton. Her former husband, Michael, previously represented Dickson from 1993 to 1996.

Lavarch sought ALP preselection to run in Dickson again in the 2019 election but was defeated by Ali France, the daughter of her former parliamentary colleague Peter Lawlor.