Rosalyn Buchanan (born 8 November 1961) 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 2002 to 2006, representing the electorate of

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

. Buchanan was born in

Bairnsdale Bairnsdale () ( Ganai: ''Wy-yung'') is a city in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia in a region traditionally owned by the Tatungalung clan of the Gunaikurnai people. The estimated population of Bairnsdale urban area was 15,411 at Ju ...

and was educated at Footscray Technical College. She was a volunteer support worker and support group co-ordinator before becoming a manager with

Centrelink The Centrelink Master Program, or more commonly known as Centrelink, is a Services Australia master program of the Australian Government. It delivers a range of government payments and services for retirees, the unemployed, families, carer ...

from 1989 to 2002. She was also a

Shire of Hastings The Shire of Hastings was a Local government in Australia, local government area about south-southeast of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, encompassing the eastern extremity of the Mornington Peninsula ...

councillor from 1989 to 1992. Buchanan was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in a shock upset in the Bracks government's landslide victory at the 2002 state election. She unexpectedly won the new seat of Hastings, which had been viewed as a safe seat for the conservative

Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Au ...

, and had a notional Liberal margin of over 8%. Buchanan initially only received $100 in campaign funding from the Labor Party until

Joan Kirner Joan Elizabeth Kirner (née Hood; 20 June 1938 – 1 June 2015) was an Australian politician who was the 42nd Premier of Victoria, serving from 1990 to 1992. A Labor Party member of the Parliament of Victoria from 1982 to 1994, she was a mem ...

and

EMILY's List Australia EMILY's List Australia is a political network in Australia that supports progressive Labor Party (ALP) women candidates seeking election to political office. Founded in 1996, EMILY's List Australia was inspired by EMILY's List, a political ac ...

stepped in and provided $1500 to fund leaflets and signs. She was to only serve one term, as

Neale Burgess Neale Ronald Burgess (born 17 August 1956) is an Australian politician. He was a Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 2006 to 2022, representing the electorate of Hastings. Political career Burgess first ran as the ...

, the defeated Liberal candidate from 2002, recontested the seat at the 2006 election and defeated Buchanan by 717 votes.

References

1961 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Women members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians People from Bairnsdale {{Australia-Labor-Victoria-MP-stub