Rebekha Carina Sharkie ( Che;
born 24 August 1972) is an Australian politician and member of the
Centre Alliance
Centre Alliance, formerly known as the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is a centrist political party in Australia based in the state of South Australia. It currently has one representative in the Parliament, Rebekha Sharkie in the House of Represent ...
party. She is a member of the
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.
The term of members of the ...
, representing the
Division of Mayo
The Division of Mayo is an Australian electoral division located to the east and south of Adelaide, South Australia. Created in the state redistribution of 3 September 1984, the division is named after Helen Mayo, a social activist and the fir ...
in South Australia. At the
2016 federal election she defeated
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 ...
Jamie Briggs
Jamie Edward Briggs (born 9 June 1977) is a former Australian politician, who represented the House of Representatives seat of Mayo for the Liberal Party of Australia from the 2008 Mayo by-election to the 2 July 2016 federal election. Briggs ...
, and was the first
Nick Xenophon Team
Centre Alliance, formerly known as the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is a centrist political party in Australia based in the state of South Australia. It currently has one representative in the Parliament, Rebekha Sharkie in the House of Represent ...
member to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives. On 11 May 2018,
Sharkie resigned from the House of Representatives as a part of the
2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis
Starting in July 2017, the eligibility of several members of the Parliament of Australia was questioned. Referred to by some as a "constitutional crisis", fifteen sitting politicians were ruled ineligible by the High Court of Australia (sit ...
.
She contested the
2018 Mayo by-election
A by-election for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Mayo took place on Saturday 28 July 2018, following the resignation of incumbent Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie.
In early counting, within an hour of the close of polls, the Au ...
on 28 July, and was returned to parliament.
Early life and education
Sharkie was born in
Torbay
Torbay is a borough and unitary authority in Devon, south west England. It is governed by Torbay Council and consists of of land, including the resort towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, located on east-facing Tor Bay, part of Lyme ...
, England in 1972 to British and American parents. The family moved to Australia when Sharkie was two years old.
She attended Eyensbury Senior College for her high school education and went on to study international relations and public policy at
Flinders University
Flinders University is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across 11 locations in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of British navigator ...
.
Sharkie became a naturalised Australian on 19 March 2007, and formally renounced her British citizenship in 2016.
Career
Sharkie worked as a
paralegal
A paralegal, also known as a legal assistant, or paralegal specialist is a professional who performs tasks that require knowledge of legal concepts but not the full expertise of a lawyer with a license to practice law. The market for paralegals i ...
in
Darwin and South Australia.
[
]
Political life
As a high school student, Sharkie had handed out how-to-vote cards for Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party dissenting splinter groups, it was Australia ...
Janine Haines
Janine Winton Haines, AM (née Carter; 8 May 1945 – 20 November 2004) was an Australian politician who was a Senator for South Australia from 1977 to 1978 and again from 1981 to 1990. She represented the Australian Democrats, and served as t ...
. In 2006, she worked as a researcher for then-South Australian Liberal opposition leader Isobel Redmond
Isobel Mary Redmond (born 8 April 1953) is a former Australian politician who was the member for the electoral district of Heysen in the House of Assembly from 2002 to 2018. She was the parliamentary leader of the South Australian Division of t ...
.[ In 2008, she worked as an electorate officer for Briggs for six months.][ She has also worked for South Australian state Liberal MP ]Rachel Sanderson
Rachel Sanderson is an Australian politician who represented the seat of Adelaide in the South Australian House of Assembly for the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia from the 2010 election to the 2022 election. Sande ...
.
Although she had worked for Liberals for some time, Sharkie did not formally join the party until 2010. She left it in 2012 when she was appointed the national Executive Officer Youth Connections
Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. You ...
. When that program was defunded by the Liberal government at the end of 2014, she became Senior Manager and Head of Donor relations at Helping Young People Achieve (HYPA) a NFP that assists young disadvantaged people in South Australia.
Sharkie considered running for the Liberals in the 2014 state election in the safe seat of Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
, only to be told that she needed the blessing of federal minister Christopher Pyne
Christopher Maurice Pyne (born 13 August 1967) is a retired Australian politician. As a member of the Liberal Party, he held several ministerial positions in the Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments, and served as a member of p ...
and federal senator Cory Bernardi
Cory Bernardi (born 6 November 1969) is an Australian conservative political commentator and former politician. He was a Senator for South Australia from 2006 to 2020, and was the leader of the Australian Conservatives, a minor political party h ...
, the highest-ranking federal MPs from the moderate and conservative factions of the SA Liberals, before seeking preselection. Sharkie told ''The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'' that when she learned she couldn't stand without the "anointing" of Pyne and Bernardi, she was appalled. She asked, "Are you serious? A branch doesn't choose?" Combined with her anger at the "ditch the witch" campaign against Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...
, she was thus very receptive when then-independent Senator Nick Xenophon
Nick Xenophon ( Nicholas Xenophou; born 29 January 1959) is an Australian politician and lawyer who was a Senator for South Australia from 2008 to 2017. He was the leader of two political parties: Nick Xenophon Team federally, and Nick Xenophon ...
announced he was forming his own party to stand candidates in the upcoming federal election. Initially serving as a volunteer for the newly-formed Nick Xenophon Team, she ultimately agreed to stand in Mayo. Although Mayo had been a very safe Liberal seat for most of its existence, polling suggested that if 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 ...
directed its preferences to Sharkie, she could take the seat off the Liberals.
In the 2 July 2016 election, Sharkie defeated her former boss, Briggs, 55% to 45% in 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, ...
.[ On the first count, she finished only three percent behind Briggs, who lost over 16 percent of his primary vote from 2013. This allowed her to ultimately defeat Briggs on Labor preferences.
She became the first NXT member of the ]Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.
The term of members of the ...
,[ joining a cross-bench of five members not aligned to either major party. She is the first woman and the first non-Liberal member to represent Mayo.]
On 9 May 2018, Sharkie announced her resignation from the House of Representatives following the High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution.
The High Court was established fol ...
ruling that Senator Katy Gallagher
Katherine Ruth Gallagher (born 18 March 1970) is an Australian politician who has been serving as the Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Minister for the Public Service and Vice-President of the Executive Council in the Albanese Gover ...
was ineligible to contest the 2016 election as a consequence of the 2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis
Starting in July 2017, the eligibility of several members of the Parliament of Australia was questioned. Referred to by some as a "constitutional crisis", fifteen sitting politicians were ruled ineligible by the High Court of Australia (sit ...
. Like Gallagher, Sharkie had failed to complete renunciation of her British citizenship before nomination in the 2016 federal election. She contested the 2018 Mayo by-election
A by-election for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Mayo took place on Saturday 28 July 2018, following the resignation of incumbent Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie.
In early counting, within an hour of the close of polls, the Au ...
on 28 July, and was returned to parliament with a swing in her favour.[
Sharkie successfully defended her Mayo seat in the May 2019 federal election winning her seat with a two party preferred vote of 55.14%, up 2.22% on the previous election.
Sharkie was re-elected in the ]2022 Australian federal election
The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth conse ...
with the support of the Teal independents
The teal independents, sometimes simply referred to as teals, are a loosely-aligned group of independent and minor party politicians in Australian politics. They have been characterised as strongly advocating for increased action to mitigate cli ...
.
Personal
Sharkie is married to Nathan. They live in Birdwood, South Australia
Birdwood is a town near Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the local government areas of the Adelaide Hills Council and the Mid Murray Council.
History Origin of the name
Birdwood was originally named ''Blumberg'', by Prussian set ...
. She has three children from a previous marriage which ended around 2008.
References
External links
NXT profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharkie, Rebekha
1972 births
Living people
Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Mayo
Nick Xenophon Team members of the Parliament of Australia
21st-century Australian politicians
Women members of the Australian House of Representatives
21st-century Australian women politicians