Elizabeth Ann Beattie is an 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. She has been an Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly

Victorian Legislative Assembly

The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria in Australia. Together with the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house, it sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Melbourne.-History:...

 since 1999. She has represented the electorate of Yuroke

Electoral district of Yuroke

The Electoral district of Yuroke is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It is situated in the outer northern suburbs of Melbourne, starting from and including Melbourne Airport and heading north beyond the metropolitan boundary...

 since 2002; she previously represented the abolished electorate of Tullamarine

Electoral district of Tullamarine

Electoral district of Tullamarine was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria.-Members for Tullamarine:...

. She is the Parliamentary Secretary assisting the Premier on Multicultural Affairs and Veteran Affairs.

Beattie was born in the Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 suburb of Richmond

Richmond, Victoria

Richmond is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra...

. Prior to entering politics, she worked as an office manager for the Australian Services Union

Australian Services Union

The Australian Municipal, Administrative, Clerical and Services Union, which operates under the trading name of the Australian Services Union or ASU, is a trade union that represents members in a variety of industries.-Union history:...

 from 1994 to 1996, and as a building manager at Melbourne Trades Hall from 1996 until her election to parliament in 1999. She was also involved in her party's local branches, serving as president of the Labor branch in Sunbury

Sunbury, Victoria

Sunbury is a regional city, located north-west of Melbourne's central business district, in the state of Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Hume. At the 2006 Census, Sunbury had a population of 31,000...

 from 1993 to 1998.

Beattie was preselected as the Labor candidate for Tullamarine

Electoral district of Tullamarine

Electoral district of Tullamarine was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria.-Members for Tullamarine:...

 for the 1999 state election, opposing outspoken conservative Bernie Finn

Bernie Finn

Bernard Thomas Christopher Finn is a member of the Victorian Legislative Council representing the Western Metropolitan Region since the election of November 2006...

. Finn had won the seat, in a traditionally Labor area, in the huge Labor defeat of 1992, and been re-elected in 1996.