Biography

Parliamentary service

• Elected to the House of Representatives for Indi, Victoria, 2019. Re-elected 2022.

Committee service

• House of Representatives Select: Regional Australia served from 29.7.2019 to 15.3.2022
• House of Representatives Standing: Employment, Education and Training served from 24.7.2019 to 29.7.2019; Environment and Energy served from 15.3.2021 to 17.2.2022; Appropriations and Administration served from 1.8.2022 to present; Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport served from 1.8.2022 to present
• Joint Select: National Anti-Corruption Commission Legislation served from 28.9.2022 to 4.10.2022; National Anti-Corruption Commission Legislation served as Deputy Chair from 4.10.2022 to 10.11.2022
• Joint Standing: National Broadband Network served from 18.9.2019 to 11.4.2022
• Joint Statutory: National Anti-Corruption Commission served as Deputy Chair from 13.2.2023 to present

Parliamentary party positions

• Independent. Served: 18.05.2019 to present

Personal

• Born: 21.9.1961, Colac, Australia
• Gender: Female
• Marital Status: Married

Qualifications and occupation before entering Federal Parliament

• BNursing (Deakin University).
• PhD (MedSc) (Uppsala Universitet, Sweden).
• MPH (University of New South Wales).
• Grad(AICD) (Australian Institute of Company Directors).
• Chairperson of the Ovens and King Community Health Board from 2000 to 2010.
• Director of the Rural Academic Health Network from 2007 to 2019.
• Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Rural Health, University of Melbourne from 2007 to 2019.
• Board member of the Wangaratta Unlimited Economic Advisory Board from 2010 to 2016.
• Company director at Hume Medicare Local from 2012 to 2015.
• Adjunct Visiting Research Fellow at Uppsala Universitet, Sweden from 2014 to 2019.
• Postdoctoral fellow at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, 2014.
• Board member at St Catherine's, Wangaratta from 2016 to 2019.
• Company director at Indigo Power from 2018 to 2019.
• Executive Director for Education and Research at Northeast Health, Wangaratta from 2018 to 2019.

Electorate

• Name: Indi
• Location: The Division of Indi consists of: Alpine Shire Council, Benalla Rural City Council, Indigo Shire Council, Mansfield Shire Council, Murrindindi Shire Council, Towong Shire Council, Wangaratta Rural City Council, Wodonga Rural City Council, part of the Strathbogie Shire Council, the unincorporated area of Falls Creek Alpine Resort, the unincorporated area of Lake Mountain Alpine Resort, the unincorporated area of Mount Buller Alpine Resort, and the unincorporated area of Mount Hotham Alpine Resort.
• Area: 29,187 Sq km
• Electors enrolled: 112,775 (at 9.6.2019)
• Industries: Tourism, forestry, wood chipping, viticulture, agriculture, timber processing and manufacturing.

Publications

• Cross-cultural comparison of levels of childbirth-related fear in an Australian and Swedish sample (co-authored with J Pallant, A Karlstrom and I Hildingsson), Midwifery, 2011.
• The influence of women's fear, attitudes and beliefs of childbirth on mode and experience of birth (co-authored with C Rubertsson, J Pallant and I Hildingsson), BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 2012.
• Women's attitudes and beliefs of childbirth and association with birth preference: A comparison of a Swedish and an Australian sample in mid-pregnancy (co-authored with C Rubertsson, J Pallant and I Hildingsson), Midwifery, 2012.
• Women's satisfaction with antenatal care: comparing women in Sweden and Australia (co-authored with I Hildingsson, M Cross, J Pallant and C Rubertsson), Women and Birth, 2013.
• The role of women's attitudinal profiles in satisfaction with the quality of their antenatal and intrapartum care (co-authored with I Hildingsson, J Pallant and C Rubertsson), Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing, 2013.
• Childbirth fear in expectant fathers: findings from a regional Swedish cohort study (co-authored with I Hildingsson, M Johansson, J Fenwick and C Rubertsson), Midwifery, 2014.
• Psychometric evaluation and refinement of the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (co-authored with J Pallant, I Hildingsson, M Cross and C Rubertsson), Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 2014.
• Maternal depressive symptoms have a negative impact on prenatal attachment - findings from a Swedish community sample (co-authored with C Rubertsson, J Pallant, G Sydsjo and I Hildingsson), Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 2015.
• Identifying women who are afraid of giving birth: a comparison of the fear of birth scale with the WDEQ-A in a large Australian cohort (co-authored with J Pallant, J Fenwick, J Gamble, D Creedy and J Toohill), Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, 2015.
• Higher prevalence of childbirth related fear in foreign born pregnant women - findings from a community sample in Sweden (co-authored with E Ternstrom, I Hildingsson and C Rubertsson), Midwifery, 2015.
• Pregnant women's thoughts when assessing fear of birth on the Fear of Birth Scale (co-authored with E Ternstrom, I Hildingsson and C Rubertsson), Women and Birth, 2016.
• Assessment of the dimensionality of the Wijma delivery expectancy/experience questionnaire using factor analysis and Rasch analysis (co-authored with J Pallant, P Green, J Toohill, J Gamble and D Creedy), BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 2016.
• Mind the gap: is it time to invest in embedded researchers in regional, rural and remote health services to address health outcome discrepancies for those living in rural, remote and regional areas (co-authored with A Moran, N Raschke, D Schmidt, A Koschel and A Stephens), Australian Journal of Primary Health, 2019.