Louise Markus

Louise Elizabeth Markus (born 6 September 1958), Australian federal politician, is a member of the Australian House of Representatives, initially elected to represent the seat of Greenway in western Sydney for the Liberal Party of Australia at the 2004 federal election. Following an unfavourable redistribution in 2010, she moved to the seat of Macquarie.

Early years and background

She was educated at the University of New South Wales, graduating in social work, and was a community worker running the Hillsong Church's drug and alcohol outreach service in Blacktown prior to entering politics.^[1]

She is married to Jim Markus, who is from Papua New Guinea;^[2] together they have seven children. When louise markus was litle she was in a football team

Political career

Subsequent to the 2004 election, unsubstantiated allegations were made in the NSW State Parliament under Parliamentary privilege that Mrs Markus had directly benefited from unauthorised campaign materials containing false statements in an attempt to capture anti-Islamic sentiment against her Labor opponent.^[3] These allegations were not supported as the basis for his loss by the Labor Candidate^[4] nor supported by contemporary media coverage.^[5]

Markus retained the seat of Greenway with a comfortable margin in the 2007 election, although with a nominal swing of 6.85 points against her on a two-party-preferred basis.^[6]

Following the 2007 election, she was made Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Citizenship, but lost the position in 2010.^[7] She was previously the Shadow Minister for Veteran's Affairs.

She lives in Riverstone, outside her electorate of Macquarie. A September 2006 redistribution of boundaries saw massive changes in the shape of her electorate of Greenway being centred on the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains rather than Blacktown. The northward shift in electorate boundaries also saw Greenway change from safe Liberal to safe Labor. A further electoral redistribution in 2009 made the seat of Greenway notionally Labor on an estimated margin of 5.7%.^[8]

Markus contested the 2010 federal election as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Macquarie . The 2009 electoral redistribution had dealt a fraction of her former electorate into Macquarie. Markus won the Two-party-preferred vote by 2.52 points against labor, with most support in her traditional base in the urban east of the electorate, and high Greens votes in the smaller upper Blue Mountains booths.^[9] The 2013 federal election was marked by widespread swings towards the liberal party and away from labor in Western Sydney. In this context, Markus further extended her margin, winning with a primary vote of 47.4% and a two-party-preferred vote of 54.5%. As before, the electorate demonstrated a marked polarity, with the her support being in the more urban northern and eastern portions of the electorate.^[10]

External links

• Louise Markus MP – Official website

References