Margaret Quirk

Margaret Mary Quirk (born 26 June 1957) is an Australian politician who was a Labor Party member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2025. She served as a minister in the governments of Geoff Gallop and Alan Carpenter between 2005 and 2008.

Early life Quirk was born in Adelaide, South Australia, to Helen Marian Sykes and James Patrick Quirk. During her childhood, she lived for periods in Perth, Western Australia, and Oxford, England, but eventually returned to Adelaide, graduating from Unley High School. Quirk went on to study law at the University of Adelaide, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1975. She moved to Canberra after graduation, initially working for the administrative review section of the federal government's Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. She later worked in the office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. Quirk moved to Western Australia in 1988 to work as an adviser to the Labor government of Peter Dowding on energy and environmental issues. She was employed by a commercial law from 1989 to 1991, and then worked for the National Crime Authority until her election to parliament.

Politics Quirk entered parliament at the 2001 state election, replacing the retiring Ted Cunningham in Girrawheen, a Labor safe seat. She was made government whip shortly after her election, and made a parliamentary secretary in 2003. That year, she also graduated from Murdoch University with a Master of Arts degree in public policy. However, D'Orazio resigned from the ministry the following day, and Quirk regained her other positions for a brief period before eventually relinquishing them to Tony McRae. In the same ministerial reshuffle, the position of Minister for Justice was abolished, with Quirk instead becoming Minister for Corrective Services. She relinquished the women's interests portfolio to Sue Ellery in March 2007, but remained Minister for Corrective Services and Minister for Small Business until the Labor government's defeat at the 2008 state election.

On 2 April 2024, it was announced that Quirk would be retiring at the 2025 state election. She was succeeded by Premier Roger Cook's chief of staff, Daniel Pastorelli.