Karlene Maywald
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Karlene Maywald, Australian politician, is the current South Australian Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Small Business, Minister assisting the Minister for Industry and Trade, and Minister for Water Security, and represents the electoral district of Chaffey in the South Australian House of Assembly. As Maywald is the only MP in her party, she is also the state parliamentary leader of The Nationals SA.
A small businessperson before entering Parliament, Maywald was first elected to parliament at the 1997 state election. In contrast to federal politics and in some other states, the Nationals do not have a coalition agreement with the Liberal Party in South Australia so she sat as an independent backbencher during the term of the Liberal Government, voting against the privatisation of ETSA. In 1998, during her first term in Parliament, Maywald became the first member of parliament to give birth to a child while in office when her daughter Tilly Rose was born.
Winning an increased majority at the 2002 state election, Maywald voted for a Kerin Liberal government over a Rann Labor Government and later voted against the state government's industrial relations package. In 2004, however, Maywald was convinced to become a minister in the government, but signed a comprehensive agreement with Labor reserving her right to vote against any government initiative which affected her electorate or the business community. This informal ALP-NAT coalition (the first since 1935) caused uproar, with Christopher Pyne calling for Maywald's expulsion from the Nationals and Patrick Secker calling for a corruption enquiry in to the appointment - neither eventuated. Maywald stated she would support either party who took government at the 2006 state election. The agreement with Labor included a commitment to retain her as a minister if Labor won the 2006 election, so Maywald has remained a minister since Labor's 2006 election win.
