Melanie Rhonda Gibbons MP, an Australian politician, is a 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...

 representing Menai

Electoral district of Menai

Menai is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Melanie Gibbons of the Liberal Party of Australia. Currently, it is the only state seat in the state of New South Wales to have always been represented by a woman.-Members for...

 for the Liberal Party of Australia

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...

 since 2011

New South Wales state election, 2011

Elections to the 55th Parliament of New South Wales were held on Saturday, 26 March 2011. The 16-year incumbent Australian Labor Party government led by Premier Kristina Keneally was defeated in a landslide by the Liberal-National coalition opposition led by Barry O'Farrell.New South Wales has...

.

Early years and background

Gibbons was born and raised in Woronora

Woronora, New South Wales

Woronora is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woronora is located 27 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. Woronora Heights is a separate suburb, to the south-west.-Placename...

 in the Sutherland Shire

Sutherland Shire

The Sutherland Shire is a Local Government Area in the Southern Sydney region of Sydney, Australia. Geographically, it is the area to the south of Botany Bay and the Georges River...

 and worked as a real estate agent before becoming a development manager for Technical Aid to the Disabled

Technical Aid to the Disabled

Technical Aid to the Disabled NSW is a New South Wales organisation established in 1975 to provide their technical skills to assist people with disabilities...

. She also formerly worked for various state and federal politicians.

Political career

Elected to the Sutherland Shire Council in 2004 as 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...

 candidate, Gibbons was, at one stage, deputy mayor.

Having previously sought endrosement in 2007, Gibbons was endorsed as a candidate for the Liberal Party in 2010. At the March 2011 elections, Gibbons was elected and received a swing of 18.4 per cent, winning 74.4 per cent of the vote on a two-party preferred basis. Alison Megarrity

Alison Megarrity

Alison Patricia Megarrity , a former Australian politician, was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Menai for the Australian Labor Party between 1999 and 2011....

, the incumbent Labor

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, did not seek re-election. Gibbons' main competitor was Peter Scaysbrook. Menai was among the first seats claimed as won by the coalition

Coalition (Australia)

The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...

on election night.