Catherine Elizabeth O'Toole (born 30 August 1956) is a former Australian politician. She served as 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

Herbert Herbert may refer to: People Individuals * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert Name * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert, ...

from 2016 until

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Early life and career

O'Toole was born and raised in

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 30 ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. O'Toole left school in year 11, when she was 16 years old, to become an apprentice hairdresser. When she was 18 she and her mother purchased and ran the business. O'Toole and her husband Dennis later bought out her mother's stake in the business, and ran local family-owned small businesses including hairdressers, a news agency, and vocational training organisation. From 1988 to 2002 O'Toole was involved in vocational training organisations: from 1988 to 1991 O'Toole was a teacher at Townsville College of

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

and Kangaroo College of TAFE, and from 1991 to 1993 was Program Manager of Curriculum Design at Townsville TAFE; O'Toole was an Associate at the Tropical Industry Training Associates from 1994 to 1995, then from 1996 to 1997 was Manager; In 1996 she was owner and Director of O'Toole Enterprises; and, from 1997 to 2000, was managing director and owner of Future Skills & Training. From 2002 to 2016 O'Toole was involved in the community mental health sector: In 2002–2011 O'Toole was CEO of Advance Employment, which provided disability employment services; From 2012 to 2013 O'Toole was Project Development Manager of Supported Options in Lifestyle and Access Services (SOLAS) before becoming CEO from 2013 to 2016. In 2015 O'Toole was President of the Queensland Alliance for Mental Health. In 2008 O'Toole received a Rotary Sunflower Award for Community Work. O'Toole has a Bachelor of Education from CQUniversity. O'Toole is married to Dennis, and they have three adult children. O'Toole is a member of Amnesty International. In February 2016 she was part of a protest, about the treatment of refugees, outside the office of the sitting Liberal National Party MP

Ewen Jones Ewen Thomas Jones (born 7 March 1960) is a former Australian politician representing the division of Herbert for the Liberal National Party from the 2010 federal election until the 2016 federal election. Jones won the division of Herbert in ...

Political career

O'Toole was the unsuccessful Labor candidate for Herbert at the 2013 federal election. Last won by Labor at the 1993 federal election, Herbert was won by O'Toole in 2016, appearing to win the seat by eight votes. A recount revealed she won by 37 votes. She lost her seat at the 2019 federal election.

References

External links

Personal website

Australian Parliament House's profile
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Cathy O'Toole
at OpenAustralia.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Otoole, Cathy 1956 births Living people Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Herbert Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia People from Townsville 21st-century Australian politicians Central Queensland University alumni Women members of the Australian House of Representatives 21st-century Australian women politicians