Wendy Susan Machin (born 14 October 1958 in

Wingham, New South Wales Wingham is a town in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia in the Mid-Coast Council area north of Sydney. According to the , Wingham had a population of 5,395. History The first land grant in the area was made at The Big ...

), is a former Australian politician. She was the first woman member of the Nationals elected to the New South Wales Parliament and was Minister for Consumer Affairs and Minister Assisting the Minister for Roads and Assisting the Minister for Transport between 1993–1995. She was later president of the National Roads and Motorists' Association (NRMA) from 2008 to 2014.

Early life

Machin studied at Wingham High School before earning a Bachelor of Arts (Communications) at the New South Wales Institute of Technology She also holds a Masters of Commerce from the University of New South Wales.

Political career

Machin worked for the Young National Party as a field organiser, serving on its State Executive, and as Communications Officer for the National Party of Australia from 1981–82. In 1983 she was elected to North Sydney Municipal Council an independent alderman at age 25, serving until 1985 when she contested a by-election for 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 ...

seat of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

on 12 October. Winning the safe National Party seat, she became the first woman to represent the National Party in the Legislative Assembly. She founded her company Machin Consulting in the same year. Her original seat of Gloucester was abolished before the 1988 state election, so she stood for the newly recreated seat of Manning which covered the a portion of the same area. Manning was subsequently abolished after one term. The bulk of its territory was merged into

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 ...

at the 1991 state election, and Machin successfully transferred there. Machin was Deputy Speaker and became the first woman to chair the New South Wales Parliament. She appointed Minister for Consumer Affairs in the coalition government of John Fahey on 26 May 1993. The election of the Carr

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

government in 1995 saw the coalition in opposition. Machin was appointed shadow minister for Consumer Affairs, Roads and Fisheries until she resigned from Parliament on 28 August 1996 after the birth of her second child. Her resignation prompted the 1996 Port Macquarie by election, won by then National Party 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 ...

Post-parliamentary career

Machin became the President of

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...

Fund NSW in 1996, remaining in that position until 2000, as well as serving on the National Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. Between 1997 and 2000 Machin was the Deputy Chair of the Australian Republican Movement. She was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in February 1998, elected by a voluntary ballot run by the Australian Electoral Commission In 2005, Machin was elected to the board of the NRMA to represent the Coghlan region, which stretches from the Hunter River to the Queensland border. Following her re-election to the NRMA board on 8 December 2008, Machin became President on 10 December until November 2014.

Private life

Wendy Machin has 3 children; James, Georgia and Emma. Her only sibling, Janne, was left profoundly disabled after a difficult birth.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Machin, Wendy 1958 births Living people North Sydney Council National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Delegates to the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998 20th-century Australian politicians Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 20th-century Australian women politicians Ministers for better regulation and fair trading