About Dorinda Cox
Dorinda Cox was born in Kojonup, in the Great Southern of Western Australia. She is a proud Yamatji Noongar woman and mum to two strong, growing daughters.
Her dad drove trucks. Her mum ran her own small business. Hard work wasn’t something they talked about, it was just what you did.
Dorinda’s first job was in retail, picking up casual shifts and learning what it meant to earn every dollar. Watching her mum build a business from the ground up shaped her too. It’s why she believes so strongly that small businesses aren’t a slogan, they’re the backbone of life in Western Australia.
Dorinda grew up with a hereditary hearing impairment. For her, health and disability policy has always been personal.
Misheard words, never-ending doctor’s appointments and the constant effort to keep up gave her a clear view of how easy it is to fall through the cracks when services aren’t designed with everyone in mind.
It also gave her a deep respect for families who spend their lives fighting for access and support. She is a fierce advocate for inclusive, accessible services for all.
At 17 years old, at the suggestion of her dad, she signed up as a police cadet, becoming one of few Aboriginal women serving in the WA Police.
Spending nearly a decade working across Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields specialising in family and sexual violence.
Those years on the frontline changed her. She saw the strength of families doing everything they could to keep kids safe. She sat with people in some of their darkest moments and saw up close what it means when the system fails to protect women and children.
It lit a fire in her that has never gone out.
Since then, Dorinda has moved through small business, government and the community sector all the way to the United Nations.
She has run her own small business, doing the books at the kitchen table and backing herself when cash was tight.
She has worked inside government and alongside NGOs on the ground, seeing how decisions on paper land in real streets, real services and real families.
Australian Government representative on several delegations on gender equality at the United Nations Commission for the Status of Women in New York at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation in Peru and also UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Thailand.
In 2008, Dorinda was appointed to the first National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children.
Dorinda brought all of this into the Senate in 2021, becoming the first First Nations woman to represent Western Australia in the Parliament.
In Canberra, Dorinda continues the work she has done her whole life: standing up for safer communities, fairer services and a future where every child can grow up strong and supported. Her focus is on community services, child wellbeing in the early years, and the everyday issues facing Western Australians.
As Chair of the Community Affairs Committee, Dorinda works with the ministers responsible for Health, Social Services, Disability and Aged Care – Mark Butler, Tanya Plibersek, Jenny McAllister and Sam Rae – going line by line through the laws that shape these systems and pushing for policy that actually stacks up.
Dorinda works hard everyday to deliver for Western Australians using her voice and her position to make sure Parliament works better for the people who rely on it most.
