Representative Jerome Laxale Contact information

Jerome Alexandre Alain Laxale is an Australian politician and a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He currently serves as the Member of Parliament for Bennelong, having been elected in the 2022 federal election. Prior to this, Laxale served as the Councillor of the City of Ryde from 2012 to July 2022, and was the City’s Mayor for two terms, from 2015 to 2016 and from 2017 to 2022.

Laxale was born on 20 November 1983 in the Sydney suburb of Westmead to a father from Mauritius and a mother from Réunion, a French overseas department. He was educated at The King’s School and then attended the University of New South Wales, where he majored in Politics and International Relations and the French language. After finishing university, he joined the family business supplying hair and beauty products as a small business director.

Laxale joined the Labor Party in 2004 and was the Eastwood Labor branch president since 2008. He is a member of the Labor Left faction.

Laxale was first elected to the City of Ryde for the West Ward in the 2012 local government elections. He became Mayor of the Council on 8 September 2015, at the age of 31, making him the youngest ever to hold this role. After a one-year term, he was replaced as Mayor by Liberal Councillor Bill Pickering. However, after the local government elections in September 2017, Laxale was elected to be the Mayor again for a two-year term. He was re-elected in 2019 and 2021, serving as mayor until January 2022, when he was succeeded by Jordan Lane from the Liberal Party. In addition to his duties as a Councillor in the City of Ryde, Laxale was also the Treasurer in the Local Government NSW (LGNSW) Board, a position he was elected to in October 2019. He resigned as Councillor on 22 July 2022 after being elected to federal parliament.

Laxale had previously contested the state seat of Ryde as the Labor candidate in the 2011, 2015, and 2019 state elections but lost to incumbent Liberal Party member Victor Dominello on all three occasions. However, his primary vote and two-party-preferred vote (TPP) increased in each election.

To stand for election in the 2022 federal election, Laxale renounced his French and Mauritian citizenships, which he inherited from his mother and father respectively. He was successful in his election and won the seat from the Liberal Party, becoming just the second Labor Member for the former Liberal Party stronghold seat in more than 70 years.

Laxale has a son and twin daughters from a previous marriage, and his current partner is Jo Taranto. He has lived in the City of Ryde and the electorate of Bennelong since 2006, and he resides in North Ryde. He is highly proficient in the French, German, and French-based Creoles and Pidgin languages.