Alex McTaggart MP, a former Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician, was an independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 for Pittwater

Electoral district of Pittwater

Pittwater is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. Located in Sydney's north-east, it is 175.32 km² in size, and comprises the local government area of Pittwater Council and parts of Warringah Council...

 between 2005 and 2007. At the time of his election, McTaggart was also the Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Pittwater Council

Pittwater Council

Pittwater Council is a Local Government Area on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The suburbs which comprise the Pittwater LGA were detached from the Warringah local government area in 1993...

.

Political career

Following the sudden resignation of John Brogden as Liberal

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 Opposition Leader

Leader of the Opposition (New South Wales)

The role of the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in New South Wales is a title held by the leader of the largest minority party in the state lower house, the New South Wales Legislative Assembly...

 and his subsequent resignation from Parliament, McTaggart was elected to the Legislative Assembly in a 2005 by-election for Pittwater

Pittwater state by-election, 2005

A by-election was staged in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly district of Pittwater on 26 November 2005. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting member and former Liberal Party leader John Brogden....

 in what many considered as a shock result. His victory was cited as a "disastrous loss" for the Liberal Party in a seat it had held for 32 years. McTaggart attributed his election win to his opposition to the television show Baywatch

Baywatch

Baywatch is an American action drama series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, starring David Hasselhoff. The show ran in its original title and format from 1989 to 1999, sans the 1990-1991 season, of which it was not in production...

being filmed at Avalon beach

Avalon, New South Wales

Avalon is a northern beachside suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Avalon is located 35 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Pittwater Council, in the Northern Beaches region....

. In 1999, McTaggart had been a protester against a proposal for Baywatch to film permanently at the beach.

McTaggart was defeated in the 2007 state election, with Pittwater returning to the Liberal Party's Rob Stokes

Rob Stokes

Robert "Rob" Gordon Stokes BA, LLM MP , an Australian politician, is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Pittwater for the Liberal Party of Australia since 2007. He is currently the NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Renewable Energy.-Early life and background:Stokes grew...

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