Catherine Louise Hutchesson is an Australian politician. She has been a Labor Party member of the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the South Australian Legislative Council, Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament House in the st ...

since the 2022 state election, representing Waite. The constituency had been held by the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

for the previous 29 years, and its predecessor, the seat of

Mitcham Mitcham is an area within the London Borough of Merton in South London, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross. Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common. It h ...

, had only ever been held by Liberal or independent members dating back to 1938. Hutchesson had been the Labor candidate for the same seat in the 2018 state election.

Personal life and career

Hutchesson grew up in Glenalta and has lived in the district for more than forty years. She worked at the Blackwood Fitness Centre, studied community service at the Panorama campus of TAFE South Australia, and studied at Flinders University where she graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

. She also studied at the Regency Hotel School, where she qualified as a chef. After moving to the banking and finance sector she became an industrial advocate for the

Finance Sector Union The Finance Sector Union of Australia (FSU) is a white collar trade union that represents professionals working in the Banking, Finance, Insurance and Superannuation industries in Australia. The FSU was formed from the amalgamation in 1991 of va ...

. She is also a volunteer firefighter with the

Country Fire Service The South Australian Country Fire Service (SACFS, commonly abbreviated as CFS) is a volunteer based fire service in the Australian state of South Australia. The CFS has responsibility as the Control Agency for firefighting and Hazardous Waste ...

(CFS), and has been vice-president of the Upper Sturt CFS Brigade, and the representative of her brigade to the CFS Volunteers' Association and delegate to the CFS Group that includes Upper Sturt. She was president of the Upper Sturt Soldiers' Memorial Hall committee, and is also involved with the

Country Women's Association The Country Women's Association (CWA) is the largest regional and rural advocacy group in Australia. It comprises seven independent State and Territory Associations, who are passionate advocates for country women and their families, working ...

Political career

Hutchesson was the Labor Party candidate for the

electoral district of Waite Waite is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. Named after Peter Waite, a 19th century entrepreneur and philanthropist, it covers 75.4 km² of suburbs and foothills in Adelaide's inner south-east, ta ...

at the 2018 state election, when she received 42.2 per cent of the

two-party-preferred vote In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP ...

(2PP) from 23.5 per cent of the

first-preference votes In certain ranked-voting systems, a first-preference vote (or first preference, 1st preference, or primary vote) is the individual voter's first choice amongst (possibly) many. In certain ranked systems such as Instant-Runoff Voting or Single T ...

. A post-election redistribution notionally lifted her first-preference vote to 24 per cent, and a 2PP of 42.6 per cent. The constituency had been held by the

since 1993, its predecessor, the seat of

, had only ever been held by Liberal or independent members dating back to 1938, and was regarded as a blue-ribbon Liberal seat. She was again the Labor Party candidate for Waite at the 2022 state election, when she received 54 per cent of the 2PP, achieving an 11.4 per cent swing to the Labor Party. Her share of the first-preference votes was 26.6 per cent. Since 3 May 2022 she has been a member of the parliamentary Natural Resources Committee.

Footnotes

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchesson, Catherine Living people Women members of the South Australian House of Assembly 21st-century Australian women politicians Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia Year of birth missing (living people) Flinders University alumni