Susan Margaret Davies (born 1954) is a former
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 ...
n politician.
She was born in
Mirboo North,
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 ...
, to parents Richard Llewellyn (dec) and Jean Margaret Davies (dec). She attended
Leongatha
Leongatha is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, South Gippsland Shire, Victoria, Australia, located south-east of Melbourne. At the , Leongatha had a population of 5,869.
Canadian dairy company Saputo which trades in Australia ...
High School (1966–70) and
Watsonia High School in 1971, where she completed her
Higher School Certificate. She received a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
and a
Diploma of Education
The Diploma of Education, often abbreviated to DipEd or GradDipEd, is a postgraduate qualification offered in many Commonwealth countries including Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Overview
The diploma can build on the ...
in 1976 from
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria an ...
. She subsequently became a secondary school teacher, and began farming in addition to this in 1989.
Davies joined the
Labor Party in 1993, as part of the rural protest against Kennett government funding and service cuts, and was the Labor candidate for
Gippsland West in the
1996 Victorian state election
The 1996 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 30 March 1996, was for the 53rd Parliament of Victoria. It was held in the Australian state of Victoria to elect all 88 members of the state's Legislative Assembly and 22 members of the 44-mem ...
. Sitting
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 ...
MP
Alan Brown resigned less than a year after the state election, precipitating a by-election. Labor declined to stand a candidate for this very safe Liberal seat; most of the area covered by Gippsland West had been in the hands of a conservative party for more than a century and a half. Davies resigned from the Labor Party and contested the by-election as an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
. The Liberal primary vote plunged by over 16 percent, allowing Davies to emerge victorious by 159 votes.
She retained her seat in the
1999 state election, and held the balance of power with two other rural Independents when a significant, mostly rural, and very anti-Coalition swing led to a hung parliament. Davies played a key role in developing the "Independents' Charter", which the three independents used as a basis for backing a minority government under
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 ...
and the Labor Party. She served on the Public Accounts and Estimates committee during the following parliamentary term. Prior to the
2002 election, Gippsland West was essentially replaced by the newly created seat of
Bass, which was notionally Liberal in a traditional matchup. Davies contested Bass, but was pushed into third place on the primary vote behind former Liberal MLC
Ken Smith.
[
She later rejoined the Labor Party and contested the 2004 federal election as the Labor candidate for the federal seat of La Trobe. She was defeated by the Liberal candidate, Jason Wood.
Davies now runs a small farm in South Gippsland, is part of a local food producers' network, ”Grow Lightly” and Korumburra Landcare. She graduated from the AICD company director’s course in 2003, and was a founding director on several organisations, including Bass Coast Community Foundation, Chairing Energy Innovation Co-operative Ltd and currently Country University Centre Bass Coast, as well as serving on other boards.
]
References
1954 births
Living people
Independent members of the Parliament of Victoria
Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
Australian schoolteachers
La Trobe University alumni
21st-century Australian politicians
Women members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
21st-century Australian women politicians
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