Wendy Machin
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Wendy Machin | |
|---|---|
| Member of the New South Wales Parliament for Gloucester | |
| In office 12 October 1985 – 22 February 1988 | |
| Preceded by | Leon Punch |
| Succeeded by | Abolished |
| Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Manning | |
| In office 19 March 1988 – 3 May 1991 | |
| Preceded by | Recreated |
| Succeeded by | Abolished |
| Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Port Macquarie | |
| In office 25 May 1991 – 28 August 1996 | |
| Preceded by | Bruce Jeffery |
| Succeeded by | Rob Oakeshott |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 October 1958 |
| Party | The Nationals |
| Alma mater | New South Wales Institute of Technology |
| Occupation | Consultant |
Wendy Susan Machin (born 14 October 1958 in Wingham, New South Wales),[1] is a former Australian politician. She was the first woman member of the Nationals elected to the New South Wales Parliament and was Minister for Consumer Affairs and Minister Assisting the Minister for Roads and Assisting the Minister for Transport between 1993–1995.[2] She was later president of the National Roads and Motorists' Association (NRMA) from 2008 to 2014.
Machin studied at Wingham High School before earning a Bachelor of Arts (Communications) at the New South Wales Institute of Technology[2] She also holds a Masters of Commerce from the University of New South Wales.[2][3][4]
Political career
Machin worked for the Young National Party as a field organiser, serving on its State Executive, and as Communications Officer for the National Party of Australia from 1981–82.[1][2] In 1983 she was elected to North Sydney Municipal Council an independent alderman at age 25, serving until 1985 when she contested a by-election for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Gloucester on 12 October.[1][2][4]
Winning the safe National Party seat, she became the first woman to represent the National Party in the Legislative Assembly.[2] She founded her company Machin Consulting in the same year.
Her original seat of Gloucester was abolished before the 1988 state election, so she stood for the newly recreated seat of Manning which covered the a portion of the same area. Manning was subsequently abolished after one term. The bulk of its territory was merged into Port Macquarie at the 1991 state election, and Machin successfully transferred there.
Machin was Deputy Speaker and became the first woman to chair the New South Wales Parliament.[5] She appointed Minister for Consumer Affairs in the coalition government of John Fahey on 26 May 1993.[2][5]
The election of the Carr Labor government in 1995 saw the coalition in opposition. Machin was appointed shadow minister for Consumer Affairs, Roads and Fisheries until she resigned from Parliament on 28 August 1996 after the birth of her second child.[3] Her resignation prompted the 1996 Port Macquarie by election, won by then National Party member Rob Oakeshott.[2][6]
