Indian-origin barrister Varun Ghosh appointed to Australian Senate

Melbourne, Feb 3 (IANS) Indian-origin barrister Varun Ghosh will take his position in the Australian Senate next week with the Labour Party officially confirming him as their pick to represent Western Australia (WA).

A joint sitting of WA Parliament on Thursday selected the 38-year-old Ghosh, a barrister at Francis Burt Chambers, to replace present senator Patrick Dodson.

"The Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council have chosen Senator Varun Ghosh to represent Western Australia in the Senate of the Federal Parliament," the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia announced on X.

Ghosh joined the Labor party in Perth at the age of 17 after his parents moved from India in the 1980s and began working as neurologists, news website WAToday reported.

He said his preselection was an honour he won’t take for granted. “I have had the privilege of a good education and believe strongly that high-quality education and training should be available to everyone,” he said in a statement.

"Varun has spent the last few years working as a barrister with both WA business & on the international stage with the World Bank. I look forward to working with him as part of our

@walabor Senate team in CBR (Canberra)," Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Matt Keogh, wrote on X platform.

At the 2019 federal election, Ghosh was placed in fifth position on the Australian Labour Party's Senate ticket in Western Australia but was not elected.

He received degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Western Australia and was a Commonwealth Scholar in Law at the University of Cambridge.

He previously worked as a finance attorney in New York and as a consultant for the World Bank in Washington, DC.

Ghosh returned to Australia in 2015 as a senior associate with King & Wood Mallesons, representing banks, resource companies, and construction companies in dispute resolution.