Jenny Leong

Jenny Leong MP
Member of the New South Wales Parliament for Newtown
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 March 2015
Preceded by	New seat
Personal details
Born	1977 (age 38–39) Adelaide, South Australia
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Greens New South Wales
Alma mater	Flinders University, University of Sydney, University of Technology, Sydney
Occupation	Human rights campaigner and politician
Website	jennyleong.org

Jenny Leong (born 1977), an Australian politician, is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Newtown for the Greens since 2015. Leong is the first person to represent Newtown in its current form, as it was created for the 2015 election.

Political career

At university, Leong served as the Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association President, for 18 months, from February 2006 to July 2007. Leong was elected to the Sydney University Senate in 2007, serving for one year.

She was the Greens candidate for the division of Sydney at the 2004 and 2007 federal elections, but was unsuccessful.^[1] Leong also managed the NSW Greens' campaign for the 2013 federal election.

Leong won the newly created seat of Newtown against Labor's candidate, Penny Sharpe, at the 2015 State election. She won with a margin of over 60% (two-candidate preferred).^[2][3] She joins Jamie Parker in the lower house of the New South Wales Parliament.

Personal life

Jenny Leong standing with Aboriginal elder Jenny Munro

Leong was born in 1977,^[4][5] and moved to Newtown in 1996 when she was 19.

Leong worked with Amnesty International for approximately five years from 2008 to 2012, as a crisis coordinator and as a campaign organiser, before entering politics. Although based in London, Hong Kong and Australia, Leong worked all over the world. At Amnesty she oversaw the organisation's response to the Arab Spring, as well as protecting freedom of expression in Burmese elections. She also served over three years on the Human Rights Law Resource Centre advisory committee.^[6]

References