Leslie Gladys Williams (born 1960 or 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

, representing the seat of

Port Macquarie Port Macquarie, sometimes shortened to Port Mac and commonly locally nicknamed Port, is a coastal city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane, on the Tasman Sea coast at the mouth of the ...

from the 2011 state election until her resignation in 2025. Williams was a member of the National Party until switching to the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

in 2020. She was the

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Assistant Minister for Education, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, and Minister for Early Childhood Education from 2 April 2015 until 23 January 2017 when she was replaced in

Gladys Berejiklian Gladys Berejiklian (; born 22 September 1970) is an Australian businesswoman and former politician who served as the 45th premier of New South Wales and the leader of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party from 2017 to 2021. Berejikl ...

's cabinet by Sarah Mitchell. From 7 May 2019 until 9 May 2023, she was the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.

Background

Leslie Gladys Williams was born on

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island (, ) is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Poi ...

, South Australia. Williams' early career was in teaching in regional South Australia and she completed a short-term assignment as chief executive officer of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

division of the Sudden Infant Death Association. In 2000, Williams and her husband commenced ownership of the post office at Lake Cathie, New South Wales, and now operate a mail delivery service. At the same time, she completed a degree in nursing, and worked in the medical and palliative care ward at the

Base Hospital. Williams' community involvement includes membership of the

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest Service club, service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, go ...

of Laurieton, being a director of both the Hastings Men's Shed and the Suicide Prevention Network, and she is a volunteer for various organisations, including the Cancer Council of New South Wales and the

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

Political career

Williams' first tilt at public office was at the 2007 State Election where she was defeated by Nationals-turned-independent member,

Rob Oakeshott Robert James Murray Oakeshott (born 14 December 1969) is a retired Australian politician. He was the independent Member of the House of Representatives for the Division of Lyne in New South Wales from 2008, when he won the 2008 Lyne by-electi ...

. Williams gained a 3.4-point swing toward the Nationals. When Oakshott resigned the seat to contest a by-election in the Federal parliament, Williams again contested the seat against Oakshott's staffer and independent candidate,

Peter Besseling Peter Edward Besseling (born 8 March 1970) is an Australian politician. Besseling was the Mayor of Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, from 8 September 2012 to 8 May 2017, as an independent. Besseling served as Member for the New South Wales state ...

. Besseling won the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

despite a large 23.7-point swing toward Williams and the Nationals. Williams again contested Port Macquarie at the next general election, the 2011 state election, and won against Besseling with a

two-party-preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP), is the result of an opinion poll or a projection of an election result where preferences are distributed to one of the two major parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal/Natio ...

swing of 10.9 points to the Nationals, giving Williams a 6.4-point margin against her independent opponent. She actually won enough votes on the first count to reclaim the seat for the Nationals without the need for

preferences In psychology, economics and philosophy, preference is a technical term usually used in relation to choosing between alternatives. For example, someone prefers A over B if they would rather choose A than B. Preferences are central to decision the ...

. Her victory was put down in part to anger at Besseling's association with Oakeshott, who kept federal Labor in office as a minority government after the 2010 federal election. Port Macquarie has long been National heartland, and had been a comfortably safe National seat in "traditional" two-party matchups with Labor even when Oakeshott held it without serious difficulty as an independent. Following the 2015 state election, Williams was sworn in as the Assistant Minister for Education, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, and the Minister for Early Childhood Education in the

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

Baird government. On 20 September 2020 Williams announced she had resigned from the National Party and intended to defect to the

, citing the "reckless and unreasonable behaviour" of the Nationals leader

John Barilaro Giovanni Domenic Barilaro (; born 14 November 1971) is an Australian former politician who served as the 18th deputy premier of New South Wales and the leader of the New South Wales National Party, NSW National Party from 2016 to 2021. He was t ...

in threatening to move the party to the

crossbench A crossbencher is a minor party or independent politician, independent member of some legislatures, such as the Parliament of Australia. In the British House of Lords the term refers to members of the parliamentary group of non-political peers. ...

. She became a member of the Liberal Party later that night. Barilaro threatened to move to the

over a dispute with the Liberal Party regarding a

koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...

protection policy, though the matter was later resolved. Port Macquarie and its surrounds are known for having a large koala population, which is estimated to be around 2,000, and the region is home to the Hello Koalas sculpture trail and the Koala Hospital. Barilaro also announced that the National Party would field a candidate in the seat of Port Macquarie at the

2023 New South Wales state election The 2023 New South Wales state election was held on 25 March 2023 to elect the 58th Parliament of New South Wales, including all 93 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly and 21 of the 42 seats in the New South ...

. The Nationals selected local mayor Peta Pinson as their candidate, though Williams was easily re-elected. Following her re-election, Williams said the Nationals should have focused "more on seats like Monaro" than fielding a candidate in Port Macquarie. On 2 June 2023, Williams was granted retention of ''The Honourable'' title by the

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

for life, for having served as Deputy Speaker for more than three years. In January 2025, Williams announced her resignation.

Personal life

Williams is the cousin of former South Australian Deputy Premier

Vickie Chapman Vickie Ann Chapman is a former Australian politician, representing the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Bragg for the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia between the 2002 election and May 2022. Chapman serve ...

, and niece of Vickie's father Ted Chapman.

References

External links

National Party – Leslie Williams, Candidate for Port Macquarie
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Leslie Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Place of birth missing (living people) People from Kangaroo Island, South Australia 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Women legislative deputy speakers Deputy and assistant speakers of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Ministers for aboriginal affairs and treaty