Natalie Fleur Cook is an Australian politician[1][2] and anti-violence campaigner. She became an anti-violence campaigner[3] after the death of her son in a one-punch attack in 2008.[4]
Cook is a Labor member of the South Australian House of Assembly, representing Hurtle Vale since the 2018 state election. She previously represented Fisher after winning the 2014 by-election,[1][5] vacated by the death of independent member Bob Such.[6] Cook was elected with a majority of 0.02%,[7] a victory margin of nine votes.[8][9] She represented the seat until it was abolished in the 2018 election.
Cook has served as the Minister for Human Services in the Malinauskas ministry since March 2022. Cook was previously the Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and Urban Development from September 2017 until Labor's loss at the 2018 election, after which she was the Shadow Minister for Human Services in the Labor Opposition.[10]
Cook was born in Adelaide, South Australia, to first-generation English migrants, the youngest daughter of three children, and grew up in Morphett Vale, a southern Adelaide suburb.[11] Cook attended her local primary school, Flaxmill Primary School, and later went to Mitcham Girls High School.
Prior to being elected to the South Australian Parliament in 2014, Cook worked for nearly 30 years as a Registered Nurse, including as an After-Hours Hospital Coordinator, Retrieval, and Intensive-Care Nurse.[12][13] Her training began at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she joined the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF).[11] She states:
My nursing career really started as a volunteer with St John Cadets when I was 11. I had many role models in the St John's brigade who helped me to decide that nursing and working in health care was something that I needed to do, because I really cared for other people. I got enormous satisfaction out of volunteering every weekend, sometimes in multiple locations on any one day.[11]
Cook is honoured to hold the title of Associate Professor with the School of Nursing and Midwifery University of South Australia.[12]
In 2008 Cook's 17-year-old son Sam Davis was killed in a one-punch attack at a party.[4] Soon after Cook and her partner, Neil Davis, founded the Sammy D Foundation, which runs school programs to spread an anti-violence message and provide positive role models to disadvantaged youth.[3] Cook stood down from the board of the Sammy D Foundation after she was elected to Parliament.[14]
On 20 October 2014 Cook was pre-selected as the Labor Party candidate for the seat of Fisher in the 2014 Fisher by-election,[1] following the death of incumbent member Bob Such.[6] Cook won the by-election by nine votes[8][9] from a 7.3 percent two-party swing, resulting in the Weatherill Labor Government changing from minority to majority government.[5][7] On a 0.02 percent margin it was the most marginal seat in parliament.[5][7][15]
A redistribution of electoral boundaries occurs following each South Australian general election and it was decided in 2016 that the electoral division of Fisher would be abolished.[8] Its electors were divided between the seats of Davenport,[16] Heysen,[17] Hurtle Vale,[2] and Waite,[18] with Hurtle Vale designated as Fisher's successor by the South Australian Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission.[8] Cook successfully contested the 2018 general election (when the new boundaries came into effect) in Hurtle Vale, becoming its first representative. Despite Labor losing government, Cook received a swing towards her of 3.6% in two-party preferred terms,[2] taking 55.3% of the two-party preferred vote.[2]
Following Labor's victory at the 2022 election, Cook was appointed as Minister for Human Services in the Malinauskas ministry. On April 20, 2024, Cook was sworn in as Minister for Seniors and Ageing well.
Cook gave birth to her first child Sam, in 1990. She also has a stepdaughter, Sheree, and two other biological children, Ty and Sid.[11]
Cook married her longtime partner Neil Davis in 2003.[19]
Member for Fisher from 25 November 1989 to 11 October 2014 (his death)
A by-election for the district of Fisher was held on 6 December 2014. The Labor candidate won the seat over the Liberal candidate, with a margin of nine votes.
In the recount conducted on 15 December 2014, Harris received 10275 votes and Cook received 10284 votes.
