Women in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
There have been 80 women in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly since its establishment in 1856. Women have had the right to vote in the assembly since 1902 and the right to stand as a candidate since 1918.
The first successful candidate for the Legislative Assembly was Millicent Preston-Stanley, who was elected as a Nationalist representative for the multi-member electorate of Eastern Suburbs in 1925, but only lasted one term before being defeated. Fourteen years later, Mary Quirk held the seat of Balmain for Labor after the death of her husband, becoming the first Labor woman in the Assembly. However, successful women candidates in the Legislative Assembly remained few and far between until the 1980s.
In the early 1980s, women began to break through into senior positions in the state; Janice Crosio became the first woman to serve as a minister in state parliament, serving in the Wran Labor ministry, and she was followed on the conservative side of politics by Rosemary Foot, who served as the deputy leader of the Liberal Party for a time. In 1996, Liberal Kerry Chikarovski became the first woman to lead a major party in New South Wales, although she was deposed in 2003.
In 2009, Labor's Kristina Keneally became the first woman to serve as Premier of New South Wales. Both the offices of Premier and Deputy Premier were held by women from 2009 until 2011, the first in Australian history. In 2011, Shelley Hancock was elected as the first female Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. In 2017, Gladys Berejiklian became the first Liberal woman to be elected as Premier of New South Wales and first female Liberal premier of any Australian state.
While there had been a number of women elected to the Legislative Council throughout the middle of the twentieth century, it was only at the 1988 state election that numbers began to grow in the Legislative Assembly. Seven women had been elected in the previous 132 years; six more joined them the 1988 election. Numbers have improved substantially in recent years, with women now occupying 27 Assembly seats in the current parliament. Linda Burney is the only Indigenous Australian woman to have been elected to the New South Wales Parliament.
List of women in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Names in bold indicate women who have been appointed as Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries during their time in Parliament. Names in italics indicate entry into Parliament through a by-election and * symbolises members that have sat as members in both the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council.Timeline
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from:1925 till:1927 color:NA text:"Millicent Preston-Stanley "
from:1939 till:1950 color:AL text:"Mary Quirk "
from:1944 till:1950 color:LL text:"Lilian Fowler "
from:1973 till:1980 color:LP text:"Mary Meillon "
from:1978 till:1986 color:LP text:"Rosemary Foot "
from:1981 till:1990 color:AL text:"Janice Crosio "
from:1985 till:1996 color:NP text:"Wendy Machin "
from:1988 till:2007 color:AL text:"Pam Allan "
from:1988 till:1995 color:LP text:"Anne Cohen "
from:1988 till:1991 color:ID text:"Dawn Fraser "
from:1988 till:2012 color:ID text:"Clover Moore "
from:1988 till:2007 color:AL text:"Sandra Nori "
from:1988 till:1991 color:ID text:"Robyn Read "
from:1990 till:2003 color:AL text:"Deirdre Grusovin "
from:1991 till:2003 color:LP text:"Kerry Chikarovski "
from:1991 till:2003 color:LP text:"Liz Kernohan "
from:1991 till:2003 color:AL text:"Faye Lo Po' "
from:1994 till:2017 color:LP text:"Jillian Skinner "
from:1994 till:2003 color:AL text:"Gabrielle Harrison "
from:1994 till:2008 color:AL text:"Reba Meagher "
from:1995 till:2011 color:AL text:"Marie Andrews "
from:1995 till:2011 color:AL text:"Diane Beamer "
from:1995 till:1999 color:LP text:"Marie Ficarra "
from:1995 till:1998 color:AL text:"Jill Hall "
from:1996 till:2007 color:LP text:"Peta Seaton "
from:1997 till:1999 color:LP text:"Lorna Stone "
from:1999 till:2015 color:AL text:"Cherie Burton
from:1999 till:2017 color:NP text:"Katrina Hodgkinson "
from:1999 till:2011 color:AL text:"Alison Megarrity "
from:1999 till:2007 color:AL text:"Marianne Saliba "
from:2001 till:2015 color:AL text:"Barbara Perry "
from:2002 till:2011 color:LP text:"Judy Hopwood "
from:2003 till:2020 color:LP text:"Gladys Berejiklian "
from:2003 till:2016 color:AL text:"Linda Burney "
from:2003 till:2011 color:AL text:"Angela D'Amore "
from:2003 till:2011 color:AL text:"Tanya Gadiel "
from:2003 till:2020 color:LP text:"Shelley Hancock "
from:2003 till:2016 color:AL text:"Noreen Hay "
from:2003 till:2011 color:AL text:"Virginia Judge "
from:2003 till:2012 color:AL text:"Kristina Keneally "
from:2003 till:2010 color:AL text:"Karyn Paluzzano "
from:2004 till:2011 color:ID text:"Dawn Fardell "
from:2005 till:2015 color:AL text:"Carmel Tebbutt "
from:2007 till:2011 color:AL text:"Verity Firth "
from:2007 till:2019 color:LP text:"Pru Goward "
from:2007 till:2020 color:AL text:"Sonia Hornery "
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from:2007 till:2011 color:AL text:"Lylea McMahon "
from:2011 till:2020 color:LP text:"Tanya Davies "
from:2011 till:2020 color:LP text:"Melanie Gibbons "
from:2011 till:2020 color:AL text:"Tania Mihailuk "
from:2011 till:2015 color:LP text:"Robyn Parker "
from:2011 till:2015 color:LP text:"Roza Sage "
from:2011 till:2020 color:LP text:"Gabrielle Upton "
from:2011 till:2020 color:AL text:"Anna Watson "
from:2011 till:2020 color:NP text:"Leslie Williams "
from:2014 till:2020 color:AL text:"Jodie Harrison "
from:2015 till:2020 color:AL text:"Jenny Aitchison "
from:2015 till:2020 color:AL text:"Prue Car "
from:2015 till:2020 color:AL text:"Yasmin Catley "
from:2015 till:2020 color:AL text:"Trish Doyle "
from:2015 till:2020 color:AL text:"Julia Finn "
from:2015 till:2020 color:AL text:"Jo Haylen "
from:2015 till:2020 color:AG text:"Jenny Leong "
from:2015 till:2020 color:LP text:"Eleni Petinos "
from:2015 till:2020 color:NP text:"Melinda Pavey "
from:2015 till:2017 color:AL text:"Kathy Smith "
from:2015 till:2020 color:AG text:"Tamara Smith "
from:2015 till:2020 color:AL text:"Kate Washington "
from:2016 till:2020 color:AL text:"Sophie Cotsis "
from:2017 till:2020 color:AL text:"Liesl Tesch "
from:2017 till:2020 color:LP text:"Felicity Wilson "
from:2017 till:2020 color:NP text:"Steph Cooke "
from:2019 till:2020 color:SF text:"Helen Dalton "
from:2019 till:2020 color:LP text:"Wendy Lindsay "
from:2019 till:2020 color:AL text:"Marjorie O'Neill "
from:2019 till:2020 color:LP text:"Robyn Preston "
from:2019 till:2020 color:AL text:"Janelle Saffin "
from:2019 till:2020 color:LP text:"Wendy Tuckerman "
from:2019 till:2020 color:AL text:"Lynda Voltz "
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