Joanne Therese Duncan (born 1 May 1959) is an Australian politician. She was a Labor Party member of 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 1999 to 2014, representing

Macedon Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by ...

from 2002.

Education

Duncan was born in

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 ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and attended St Columba's in

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...

1970–76. In 1977 she became an audio-visual tech. In 1988 she received a

Bachelor of Education A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) is an undergraduate professional degree which prepares students for work as a teacher in schools. In some countries such as Tanzania and Kenya, additional tasks like field work and research are required in order for ...

from Melbourne College of Advanced Education and became a teacher/librarian.

Political career

In 1999, Duncan was preselected 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 ...

candidate for the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

-held seat of Gisborne, held by retiring Liberal incumbent Tom Reynolds. Duncan defeated Liberal MLC

Rob Knowles Robert Ian "Rob" Knowles (born 4 July 1947) is a former Australian politician. He was born in Ballarat to farmer Robert Joseph Knowles and Dulce, ''née'' Odgers. After graduating from Ballarat North Technical School, he became a farmer in Cla ...

on a swing of nine percent. Her victory was part of an unexpected swing to Labor in country Victoria that allowed

Steve Bracks Stephen Phillip Bracks (born 15 October 1954) is a former Australian politician and was the 44th Premier of Victoria. He first won the electoral district of Williamstown in 1994 for the Labor Party and was party leader and premier from 1999 ...

to win government. The seat was abolished in 2002, and Duncan followed most of her constituents into

, which she represented until her retirement in 2014.

References

, - 1959 births Living people Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria 21st-century Australian politicians Women members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian women politicians {{Australia-Labor-Victoria-MP-stub