Grace Grace
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician, representing the electoral district of Brisbane Central
Electoral district of Brisbane Central
The district of Brisbane Central is an electoral division in the state of Queensland, Australia.As its name suggests, the electorate covers the central portion of Brisbane. It includes the Brisbane central business district as well as the inner suburbs of Bowen Hills, Fortitude Valley, Herston,...
in the Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
Legislative Assembly
Queensland Legislative Assembly
The Queensland Legislative Assembly is the unicameral chamber of the Parliament of Queensland. Elections are held approximately once every three years. Voting is by the Optional Preferential Voting form of the Alternative Vote system...
since the October 2007 by-election
Brisbane Central by-election, 2007
A state by-election was held in Queensland on 13 October 2007 to fill the vacancy in the Queensland Legislative Assembly electoral district of Brisbane Central, formerly held by Labor member and former Premier Peter Beattie, who resigned on 14 September 2007. The Liberal-National coalition failed...
. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
.
She was born Ignazia Graziella Farfaglia in Brisbane, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, the daughter of an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
migrant cane cutter. She was an industrial relations advisor in the government of Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
, until 1995 when she was elected as assistant general secretary, and in 2000 the first female general secretary, of the Queensland Council of Unions
Queensland Council of Unions
The Queensland Council of Unions is a representative body of Trade union organisations, known as a Labour council, in the State of Queensland, Australia...
. "Grace" is an Anglicised version of "Graziella" and also her husband's surname.
Grace was elected to the Legislative Assembly following the resignation of Premier Peter Beattie
Peter Beattie
Peter Douglas Beattie , Australian politician, was the 36th Premier of the Australian state of Queensland for nine years and leader of the Australian Labor Party in that state for eleven and a half years...
. The Coalition
Coalition (Australia)
The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...
did not field a candidate. However, Labor held it with a 14.8 percent two-party majority, meaning that any Coalition candidate would have faced nearly impossible odds in any event. She won the seat in her own right in the 2009 state election
Queensland state election, 2009
The Queensland state election was held to elect members to the unicameral Parliament of Queensland on 21 March 2009. The election saw the incumbent Labor government led by Premier Anna Bligh defeat the Liberal National Party of Queensland led by Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg, and gain a...
, despite an 8.4 percent swing to the newly merged Liberal National Party.