Justine Elliot

The Honourable Justine Elliot MP
Member of the Australian Parliament for Richmond
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 October 2004
Preceded by	Larry Anthony
Majority	6.99% (2010)
Minister for Ageing
In office 3 December 2007 (2007-12-03) – 11 September 2010 (2010-09-11)
Preceded by	Christopher Pyne
Succeeded by	Mark Butler
Personal details
Born	Maria Justine Elliot (1967-07-29) 29 July 1967 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Occupation	Police officer

Maria Justine Elliot MP (born 29 July 1967), an Australian politician, is a member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Richmond, New South Wales for the Australian Labor Party, since the 2004 federal election. Between 2007 and 2010, Elliot was the Minister for Ageing and is currently a backbencher.

Background and early career

Elliot was born in Brisbane, Queensland and was educated at the University of Queensland, where she graduated in Arts. She was a Queensland police officer between 1990 and 1997 and was later Juvenile Justice Conference Convener with the New South Wales Department of Juvenile Justice. Elliot also holds a Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management & Industrial Relations from Griffith University.^[1]

Political career

In a considerable upset at the 2004 election,^[2] Elliot defeated the National Party's Larry Anthony, a minister in the Howard government. Elliot's win was one of the few victories for the Labor Party as the Coalition easily won a fourth term in government. She was also the only Labor challenger to defeat a Coalition MP in a rural seat. Richmond was once a safe National Party seat, but the growth of Tweed Heads and other coastal communities has seen Richmond become an increasingly urban seat. Elliot trailed Anthony by 11 points on the first count and was well behind him for most of the night. However, on the seventh count, a Green candidate's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Elliot, allowing her to defeat Anthony by only 301 votes. She was only the second Labor MP in the seat's history.

The 2007 election saw Elliot reelected with a victory in Richmond over the Nationals' Sue Page. The swing in the seat was over 8%, which was significantly larger than the New South Wales state average and technically made Richmond a safe Labor seat. She retained the seat at the 2010 election with only a small swing against Labor.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced she would be part of his new ministry on 29 November 2007,^[3] as Minister for Ageing. She stepped aside from the portfolio ahead of the formation of the Second Gillard Ministry on 11 September 2010.^[4] On 11 September 2010 Elliot was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade,^[5] and held this position until a reconfiguration of the ministry on 4 February 2013.^[6]

Eliot retained Richmond for Labor in the 2013 election even as the Coalition regained power, marking only the second time (the first being her initial victory in 2004) that a non-Labor government had been in office without Richmond.

See also

• First Rudd Ministry
• First Gillard Ministry

References

External links

• Search or browse Hansard for Justine Elliot at OpenAustralia.org