Natasha Griggs

Natasha Griggs
Griggs in 2014
Member of the Australian Parliament for Solomon
In office 21 August 2010 – 2 July 2016
Preceded by	Damian Hale
Succeeded by	Luke Gosling
Personal details
Born	Natasha Louise Griggs (1969-01-24) 24 January 1969 Adelaide, South Australia
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Country Liberal (territory) Liberal Party of Australia (federal)
Spouse(s)	Paul Griggs
Children	Aaron
Residence	Palmerston, Northern Territory
Alma mater	Northern Territory University
Occupation	Politician

Natasha Louise Griggs (born 24 January 1969) is a former Australian politician first elected at the 2010 federal election as a Member of the Australian House of Representatives to the division of Solomon, Northern Territory, representing the Country Liberal Party. She sat with the Liberals.^[1] She was re-elected at the 2013 federal election, but lost her seat to Labor candidate Luke Gosling at the 2016 federal election.^[2]

Background

Griggs was born in Adelaide,^[3] moved to the Territory when she was four weeks old and attended primary and secondary schools in Alice Springs before moving to Darwin in 1987 to complete a Bachelor of Business at the Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University).^[4]

She started her working life in the Northern Territory government in the IT sector. Before her election to public office she had a career in both the Government and private sectors, holding both senior project and business manager positions.^[5] In 2002 Griggs was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, undergoing six months of intensive treatment. She beat the illness and returned to work. She remains an advocate for charities and NGO's focused around cancer prevention, research and treatment.^[5] Beyond this, Griggs has long been a prominent advocate for community and non-profit organisations, raising $30,000 and being named the Territory's leading fundraiser in 1992.

Griggs stood as an Alderman in 2008 and won election to the Palmerston City Council, during which she was elected by her colleagues to the position of deputy mayor.^[5]

Political career

In 2009 she won Country Liberals pre-selection for Solomon, the marginal Labor seat that had been held by Damian Hale since the 2007 election. At the 2010 election, she won with a two-party-preferred margin of 1.75 percent from a 1.94 percent swing. She therefore became the first opposition member in the seat's history.^[6] She became the first female member of the House of Representatives to represent the Northern Territory.^[7] During her first term she opposed the construction of a nuclear waste facility in the Northern Territory arguing that science, and not politics, should determine its location.^[8]

Griggs also campaigned strongly against the removal of houses from RAAF Base Darwin,^[9] championed the need for on-going support for Defence Force personnel returning home from deployment overseas and gained bi-partisan support to have 19 February, Bombing of Darwin Day, declared a National Day of Observance.^[10]

Between 2010 and 2013 Griggs was a member of three parliamentary committees: the House of Representatives Standing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Committee, the Joint Standing National Capital and External Territories Committee and the Joint Select Australia's Immigration Detention Network Committee.^[11]

Griggs was re-elected with a reduced two-party margin of 1.4 percent at the 2013 election as the Coalition won government. Griggs remained a backbencher.

Griggs was one of the founding members of Riding for the Disabled NT.^[12] She is Patron of SIDS and Kids NT.^[13]

2016 election

Griggs made national headlines two weeks out from the 2016 election after physically taking exception to being filmed on a smartphone at a public local community event. The footage, widely published since, showed Griggs approaching the smartphone user and appearing to act in what was described as a "hostile" and "aggressive" manner, telling the smartphone user to "don't video me!" shortly before appearing to make direct contact with the owner's device which was reported to have hit the ground.^{[14][15][16][17]}

A MediaReach seat-level opinion poll in Solomon of 513 voters conducted 22−23 June during the 2016 election campaign unexpectedly found Labor heavily leading the Liberals 61–39 on the two-party vote from a large 12.4 percent swing.^[18]

At the election, Griggs was heavily defeated by her 2013 Labor opponent, Luke Gosling, at the 2016 election held on 2 July, with Gosling defeating Griggs on a 56–44 two-party vote from a 7.4 percent swing—in both cases, historic Solomon records.^[19][20]

The federal election came at a very bad time for the CLP government in the Territory, whose reputation had suffered from a series of cabinet reshuffles--including multiple leadership spills. As it turned out, Griggs' defeat foreshadowed the CLP's massive defeat at the 2016 Territory election. The CLP suffered a near-meltdown in the Darwin/Palmerston--which is virtually coextensive with Griggs' former seat--losing all but one seat there.

Personal life

Griggs lives in Palmerston with her husband Paul.^[12][21][22]

References

External links

• Natasha Griggs on Facebook
• Natasha Griggs on Twitter