Dave Sharma

Devanand Noel "Dave" Sharma (born 21 December 1975) is an Australian politician and former public servant and diplomat who has served as Senator for New South Wales since November 2023.

[9] Following a year of studying medicine, he began working as a public servant for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and completed a master's degree in International Relations through Deakin University.

[8][4] Sharma was one of seven Liberal MPs in the 46th Parliament of Australia who have obtained degrees at an Oxbridge or Ivy League university, the others being Alan Tudge, Angus Taylor, Andrew Laming, Josh Frydenberg, Greg Hunt and Paul Fletcher.

From 2004 to 2006 he served as the legal adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and was then appointed to the Australian Embassy in Washington from 2006 until 2009.

[2][3] Sharma held appointments at the Australian High Commission to Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, and as a senior civilian adviser with the Peace Monitoring Group on Bougainville.

He advised the Prime Minister Julia Gillard during G-20 summits (including as the Prime Minister's sous-sherpa) and East Asia summits and was involved in international diplomatic events which occurred in Australia including the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in October 2011 and during US President Barack Obama's visit to Australia in November 2011.

[3] In November 2012, Sharma led a visit to Abuja, Nigeria and participated in talks with the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Security Adviser as well as with officials from the Economic Community of West African States.

[14] Sharma was appointed the ambassador to Israel by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bob Carr, on 16 May 2013[15][16] replacing Andrea Faulkner.

[18] While in Israel, Sharma and his wife Rachel visited casualties of the Syrian civil war in the Ziv Medical Center in Zefat.

[29] Sharma was again pre-selected to run as the Liberal candidate for Wentworth at the 2019 Australian federal election,[30] and was successful in winning the seat from Phelps with 51.31% of the TCP vote.

[37][38][39][40] On 26 October 2021, Prime Minister Morrison announced that the Australian Government would commit to a net-zero emissions target by 2050, effectively ending a decade long political impasse on the issue.

[41][42] In the months leading up to this announcement, Sharma made several media appearances making the case for Australia to adopt a net-zero target.

[49] He was one of ten candidates to nominate for the position, beating out the likes of former Australian Capital Territory senator Zed Seselja and former New South Wales state minister for transport Andrew Constance, both of whom were endorsed by party leader Peter Dutton.

[60] Sharma wrote a paper for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute encouraging the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to invest more in online diplomacy programs, saying their social media activity was largely canned posts.

[63][64] In 2019, Sharma said an accused paedophile, Malka Leifer, was making fraudulent claims of mental health issues in the Israeli court system to delay extradition to Australia, and criticised Israel for its leniency.

[2] In January 2020, former Labor MP Melissa Parke sued Sharma for defamation over an April 2019 tweet in which he accused her of anti-semitism and "trafficking in conspiracy theories".

Sharma on peacekeeping duties in Bougainville .
Dave Sharma appearing at Mount Scopus as the Australian Ambassador to Israel .
Sharma holding a press conference during the 2018 Wentworth by-election , surrounded by Stop Adani protesters