Carole Frances Marple (''née'' Whitelaw) (born 24 December 1941) is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n politician. She was the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member for Altona in the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

from 1992 to 1996. Carole Frances Whitelaw was born at

Benalla Benalla is a small city located on the Broken River gateway to the High Country north-eastern region of Victoria, Australia, about north east of the state capital Melbourne. At the the population was 10,822. It is the administrative centr ...

, north-east of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, daughter of farmer John Lindsay Whitelaw and Grace (née Cartwright). She was educated at

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, becoming a primary teacher specialising in helping children with learning difficulties. A member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

, she ran as a candidate for several federal elections, contesting the safe

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

seat of

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in 1980 and 1983 and running in the unwinnable fourth position on the Victorian Labor

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

ticket in 1984 and 1990. From 1987–90 she was chairperson of the party's Rural Policy Committee, and chairperson of the Conservation Policy Committee 1986–92. She was a member of the Noxious Weeds Board and was instrumental in the development of Landcare. In 1992, Marple was elected to the

as the Labor member for Altona. She was Shadow Minister for Natural Resources (1992–93) and Agriculture and Rural Affairs (1993–96). In 1996 she was defeated for preselection by

Lynne Kosky Lynne Janice Kosky (2 September 1958 – 4 December 2014) was an Australian politician and senior minister in the Government of Victoria. She represented the electoral district of Altona in the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the Labor Part ...

of the party's Socialist Left faction. Marple was aligned with the Pledge/Labor Left faction of the Party and fell foul of the post-1992 agreement between the Socialist Left and Labor Unity factions. She then won preselection for the Legislative Council seat of

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

, but was defeated. With her husband, Godfrey Marple (1941-2020), who worked in the wool industry, she had two children.

References

1941 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Women members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly {{Australia-Labor-Victoria-MP-stub