Julia Claire Irwin Australia

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, was an 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...

 member of the Australian House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 from October 1998 to July 2010, representing the Division of Fowler

Division of Fowler

The Division of Fowler is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. It includes the suburbs of Ashcroft, Austral, Bonnyrigg, Bonnyrigg Heights, Busby, Cabramatta, Cabramatta West, Canley Heights, Canley Vale, Cartwright, Cecil Hills, Cecil Park, Edensor Park, Green Valley, Greenfield...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. Irwin was born in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and was variously a bank officer, trade union administration officer and electorate officer before entering politics.

In September 2005 Irwin was involved in a controversy over comments she made about Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. On 13 September Irwin made a speech in Parliament characterising Israel's policies as "ethnic cleansing", and Gaza

Gaza

Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...

 as a "concentration camp". After criticism from Jewish groups and by members of both the Liberal and Labor parties, Irwin issued an apology for her "offensive" language.

Irwin announced in September 2009 that she would not recontest her seat at the 2010 federal election.

External links

• Parliamentary Library - Biography
• Personal website