Robyn Read is a former 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. She was the Independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 member for North Shore

Electoral district of North Shore

North Shore is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Jillian Skinner of the Liberal Party of Australia.-History:...

 in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 from 1988 to 1991.

Read was born in St Leonards

St Leonards, New South Wales

St Leonards is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. St Leonards is located 5 km north-west of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of Municipality of Lane Cove, North Sydney Council and the City of...

, the daughter of Norman Read and Edith Gordon. She was educated 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 received a Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 and a Master of Town and Country Planning from the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

, becoming a journalist and university tutor. Moving into public service, she was Head of the Central Policy Unit in the New South Wales Department of Planning, Commissioner of Water Resources in New South Wales, and Director of the New South Wales Land Co-ordination Unit. Federally she was Executive Director of City Services in Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

. She also published a novel The More Things Change. She sat on North Sydney Municipal Council

North Sydney Council

North Sydney Council is a Local Government Area on the North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.- Demographics :According to the :...

 1970–77 and 1987–91, and was General Manager of Byron Shire Council.

In 1988, the Independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 MP for the state seat of North Shore

Electoral district of North Shore

North Shore is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Jillian Skinner of the Liberal Party of Australia.-History:...

, Ted Mack

Ted Mack (politician)

Edward Carrington Mack is an Australian politician. He is the only person ever to have been elected and re-elected as an independent to local, state and federal government in Australia, and is often referred to as the "father of the independents".-Early life:Mack was born in the Sydney suburb of...

, resigned from Parliament to avoid qualifying for a parliamentary pension. Read contested the resulting by-election as an independent and easily defeated her nearest rival, Liberal

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 candidate Jillian Skinner

Jillian Skinner

Jillian Gell Skinner MP , an Australian politician, is the New South Wales Minister for Health and Minister for Medical Research in the O'Farrell-Stoner Liberal/National coalitition government...

. In the 1991 redistribution, however, the neighbouring seat of Mosman

Electoral district of Mosman

Mosman was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, originally created in 1913 and named after and including the Sydney suburb of Mosman. In 1920, with the introduction of proportional representation, it was absorbed into Middle Harbour. Mosman...

 was abolished, and Read was challenged by its Liberal MP, Phillip Smiles

Phillip Smiles

Phillip Murray Smiles is a former Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Mosman from 1984 to 1991 and North Shore from 1991 to 1993....

. Smiles won narrowly, and Read retired from politics.