Tony Buti

Who is Tony Buti?

Antonio De Paulo "Tony" Buti is an Australian politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly representing the seat of Armadale since 2 October 2010, when he was elected in a by-election.

Buti attended the University of Western Australia and later the Australian National University, where he studied law, receiving his LL.B in 1992. He completed his PhD, which dealt with guardianship law and the Stolen Generations, at Oxford University in 2003. From 1997, Buti lectured at the School of Law in Murdoch University. He is the author of several books on the removal of Aboriginal children from their families, as well as sports law. He is also chairman of the Armadale Redevelopment Authority.

In 2010, following Labor frontbencher Alannah MacTiernan's resignation from the state Parliament to contest the federal seat of Canning at the 2010 federal election, Buti was preselected as Labor's candidate for the by-election. He won the seat easily with 57.9% of the primary vote and a two-party-preferred vote of 70.6% versus the Christian Democratic Party.