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 Assembly ...

representing the electorate of Tablelands in Northern

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

for the

One Nation Party Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON), also known as One Nation (ON) or One Nation Party (ONP), is a right-wing populist political party in Australia. It is led by Pauline Hanson. One Nation was founded in 1997 by Hanson and her advisors ...

. 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 of Queensland, Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament. The election saw the incumbent Australian Labor Party (Queensland Bra ...

, 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 und ...

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 in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia inland from the city of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns. Established in 2008, it was preceded by four previous local government areas ...

from April 2012 until March 2016.

Personal life

Lee Long was born in

Atherton, Queensland Atherton is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Atherton had a population of 7,724 people. Geography Atherton is on the Atherton Tableland in ...

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

Chinese descent Overseas Chinese people are people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. As of 2023, there were 10.5 million people livin ...

, 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 service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

, 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 National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

, but fell at the 1998 election to Shaun Nelson 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 is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

and the Government's policy of

privatisation Privatization (rendered 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 w ...

, 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 ...

's departure to form a new party, Pauline's United Australia Party, 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".

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