Rosa Therese Lee Long (née Schmid, born 2 October 1945) is a former member of the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembl ...

representing the electorate of Tablelands in Northern

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_ ...

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 ...

for the

One Nation Party Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON or ONP), also known as One Nation or One Nation Party, is a right-wing populist political party in Australia. It is led by Pauline Hanson. One Nation had electoral success in the late 1990s, before suffering ...

. Lee Long served three consecutive terms in office between 2001 and 2009, making her One Nation's longest-serving politician. Prior to the

2009 Queensland state election The 2009 Queensland state election was held on 21 March 2009 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament. The election saw the incumbent Labor government led by Premier Anna Bligh defeat the Liberal National ...

, the electorate of Tablelands was abolished, and much of its territory was merged with neighbouring

Charters Towers Charters Towers is a rural town in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It is by road south-west from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the town boomed as the rich gold deposits under ...

to form the new seat of Dalrymple. Lee Long contested the new electorate against

Shane Knuth Shane Andrew Knuth (born 7 September 1966) is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 2004, representing three successive seats: Charters Towers (2004–2009), Dalrymple (2009–2017) and Hil ...

, the Liberal National member for Charters Towers. However, the new seat contained more of Knuth's territory than Lee Long's, and Lee Long took only 44 percent of the two-party vote to Knuth's 55 percent. Lee Long was the mayor of the

Tablelands Region The Tablelands Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia inland from the city of Cairns. Established in 2008, it was preceded by four previous local government areas which dated back more than a century. On 1 January ...

from April 2012 until March 2016.

Personal life

Lee Long was born in

Atherton, Queensland Atherton is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Atherton had a population of 7,331 people. Geography Atherton is on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland. Atherton is joined by the Gil ...

, and has three daughters. Lee Long is a widow, and her late husband was of

Chinese descent Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. Terminology () or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, ref ...

, a fact that aroused considerable interest given One Nation's strong anti-immigration stance.

Before Parliament

Before entering parliament, Lee Long worked as a grazier, a

public servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

, and owned a small business.

Parliamentary career

Lee Long was elected to the

in 2001 to represent the seat of Tablelands. Tablelands had before 1998 been a safe seat for the National Party, but fell at the 1998 election to

Shaun Nelson Shaun Christopher Nelson (born 22 March 1973) is an Australian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1998 to 2001, representing the electorate of Tablelands. He was elected as one of 11 MPs of the One Na ...

of the One Nation Party. Lee Long was a campaign worker for Nelson during this election. Nelson subsequently left the party in 1999 amid internal tensions, and recontested the seat at the 2001 election as an independent, losing out to Lee Long. By this point, support for the One Nation party had sharply declined from the party's high point, and Lee Long was one of only three One Nation MPs in the Legislative Assembly. In her inaugural address to parliament, Lee Long attacked

globalisation Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

and the Government's policy of

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

, blaming them for a decline in the agricultural and mining industries in her electorate. She was a member of the Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee from 11 October 2006, and a member of the Estimates Committee in both 2006 and 2008. She also served on the Members' Ethics and Parliamentary Privileges Committee from 18 March 2004 to 15 August 2006, the Scrutiny of Legislation Committee (3 May 2001 – 13 January 2004), and the Select Committee on Travelsafe (2 May 2001 to 13 January 2004).

Political views

Despite the disintegration of the One Nation Party and

Pauline Hanson Pauline Lee Hanson (''née'' Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the founder and leader of One Nation, a right-wing populist political party. Hanson has represented Queensland in the Australian ...

's departure to form a new party,

Pauline's United Australia Party Pauline's United Australia Party was an Australian political party launched by One Nation founder Pauline Hanson on 24 May 2007 after disputes within her former party led to her separation from it. It was registered by the Australian Electoral C ...

, in a television interview leading up to the 2006 state election, Lee Long stated that she still agreed with Hanson's policies: "Pauline Hanson was right back then, she's right now, and we have to continue the fight".

Elections contested

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee Long, Rosa One Nation members of the Parliament of Queensland Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly 1945 births Living people 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Women members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly