Liz Cunningham
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Anne "Liz" Cunningham is an 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 has been an independent member of the Queensland 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 1995, representing the electorate of Gladstone
Electoral district of Gladstone
The district of Gladstone is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.The current member is independent Liz Cunningham who won the seat on National Party preferences after defeating then Labor MP Neil Bennett at the 1995 election...

. A conservative MLA in a traditionally Labor district, Cunningham is perhaps most well known for having brought Rob Borbidge
Rob Borbidge
Robert Edward Borbidge AO , Australian politician, was the 35th Premier of Queensland, and leader of the Queensland branch of the National Party...

's 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...

 minority government to power in 1996, following the then Goss
Wayne Goss
Wayne Keith Goss was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996.-Early life:He was born at Mundubbera, Queensland and educated at Inala High School and the University of Queensland...

 Labor government's loss in the Mundingburra by-election.

Cunningham was involved in local politics prior to entering state politics, serving on the Calliope Shire Council from 1988 to 1995 and serving as its mayor from 1991 to 1995. A social conservative and devout Christian running in a traditionally Labor seat, she ran a strong campaign on "back to basics" issues, in particular concern about the downgrading of Gladstone Hospital, and was only narrowly defeated by 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...

 candidate Neil Bennett in 1992. Three years later, she defeated Bennett on her second attempt due to National
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

 preferences, to become the first non-Labor MLA for Gladstone in more than sixty years.

Cunningham's victory was especially significant in the light of the extremely close result of the 1995 state election. It initially appeared as if the result would be a hung parliament
Hung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...

 with Cunningham holding the balance of power, although later counting delivered a one-seat majority to the Wayne Goss
Wayne Goss
Wayne Keith Goss was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996.-Early life:He was born at Mundubbera, Queensland and educated at Inala High School and the University of Queensland...

 Labor government. The situation nevertheless gave her significant influence, as she forced the retention of incumbent Speaker Jim Fouras
Jim Fouras
Demetrios "Jim" Fouras is a former Australian politician. Born in Greece, he migrated to Queensland where he was a research chemist and then a marketing economist with the Department of Primary Industries. In 1977, he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for South...

 for the new parliament over the party's desired replacement. Her inaugural speech on September 1995 reaffirmed her combined focus on community issues and social policy, criticising the Goss government's transport and health policies, and advocating for the reintroduction of corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...

, a return to institutionalisation of the mentally ill, and a return to Christian values.

Cunningham's influence in the Assembly increased dramatically in December 1995 when the Court of Disputed Returns ordered a by-election in the seat of Mundingburra
Electoral district of Mundingburra
The district of Mundingburra is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.- Overview :The seat is one of four within the Townsville urban area in North Queensland. Significant utilities within the Mundingburra electorate are the Townsville Hospital,...

, which the Labor government had held by 16 votes in the general election. After a disastrous by-election campaign which included the disendorsement of incumbent MLA Ken Davies
Ken Davies (politician)
Ken Davies is an Australian politician who represented the electoral district of Mundingburra, Queensland state, for the Labor Party. He was first elected in 1989. For six years, he was the head of the Parliamentary Criminal Justice Commission, and then was promoted to cabinet, in a junior...

, Liberal candidate Frank Tanti won, costing the government its majority, and handing Cunningham the balance of power. Cunningham announced that she would support the Coalition on matters of confidence and supply in the Legislative Assembly, citing their having won the popular vote in the general election. Rather than face certain defeat in the legislature, Goss resigned, paving the way for Borbidge to succeed him as Premier. She declined an offer from the new government to become Speaker, insisting that it would compromise her ability to represent her electorate.

Throughout her first term, Cunningham generally supported the Coalition government however statistically, the opposition was more successful than an opposition usually is in relation to amendments to legislation and other motions. With her support, Borbidge was able to fend off numerous no-confidence motions and pass most of his major legislative proposals. When the ALP moved against the government over the Carruthers and Connolly-Ryan inquiries, Cunningham helped block a no-confidence motion in the government and, although she passed a motion against Attorney-General Denver Beanland
Denver Beanland
Denver Edward Beanland , Australian state politician. Denver was elected as an Alderman of the Brisbane City Council in 1976 and served on that Council, including a period as Deputy Lord Mayor of Brisbane until 1986. Denver was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly, in 1986, as the member...

, insisted that she did not demand his resignation. This resulted in criticism from some quarters that she was effectively another National Party MP.

She nevertheless insisted that the government consult with her on most legislation, including budgets and, she was also able to exercise significant power. This was made clear in 1996, when she watered down the government's workplace compensation reforms, despite strong government resistance, so as to retain access to the common law for injured workers, workers compensation for travel to and from work among other things. As a generally conservative MP, Cunningham became known for her opposition to abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

 and her support of capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

. In 1996, she was the only member of the parliament to oppose new gun control reforms in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre, which otherwise received bipartisan support. The following year, Cunningham was responsible for an amendment which successfully defined the term "life" in the state's criminal code (assault provisions) as "beginning at conception".

Cunningham increased her primary vote at the 1998 state election, but her political influence severely declined when 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...

 formed an ALP government with the support of newly-elected independent Peter Wellington
Peter Wellington
Peter Wellington is an Independent member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, for the Electoral district of Nicklin. Wellington, along with fellow independent Liz Cunningham, briefly held the balance in power following the 1998 state election...

. Taking a similar line to the state National Party, Cunningham had noted in the lead-up to the election that she would be willing to work with any members of the far-right One Nation party if they were elected. She again held her seat at the 2001 election.

In April 2002, Cunningham was stopped by police while driving and asked to undergo a breath test. She refused on the grounds of suffering asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...

, and was subsequently charged. After receiving little sympathy from Premier Beattie, she was fined and had her driving license suspended. Her third term was also marked by an attempt to ban flag-burning, which failed after the government blocked her Private Member's Bill on the grounds that it violated free speech, and an attempt to call a Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...

 in foster care, which also failed due to opposition from the government. She received her highest primary vote yet at the 2004 election and easily held the seat without going to preferences.

Cunningham was nominated for Speaker after the election, with the support of the opposition National-Liberal coalition, the One Nation Party
One Nation Party
One Nation is a far-right and nationalist political party in Australia. It gained 22% of the vote translating to 11 of 89 seats in Queensland's unicameral legislative assembly at the 1998 state election and made major inroads into the vote of the existing parties...

, and the state's six independents, but was soundly defeated by government nominee Ray Hollis
Ray Hollis
Raymond Keith "Ray" Hollis is a former Australian politician. Born in London, England, he migrated to Australia in 1962 as a merchant seaman and worked in a variety of occupations, including a railway worker, cook, paper mill operator, insurance salesman and a position with the Victorian...

. She raised allegations of bullying against the management of the Gladstone Hospital in 2005, going to Rockhampton
Rockhampton, Queensland
Rockhampton is a city and local government area in Queensland, Australia. The city lies on the Fitzroy River, approximately from the river mouth, and some north of the state capital, Brisbane....

 to testify before the Forster Review of the state's health system.

Cunningham was a strong favourite to retain her seat at the 2006 state election, which she held coming into the election by a margin of 11.2%. However, after a strong local Labor campaign focusing on Cunningham's perceived support for controversial federal industrial relations laws, she came close to defeat, with her eventual victory over Labor candidate Chris Trevor
Chris Trevor
Chris Allan Trevor is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Flynn from 2007 to 2010...

 being one of the last results declared of the election. More recently, she voted against the cloning of embryos for stem cell research.

Cunningham yet again retained her seat 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 a 4% swing to Labor.

See also

  • Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 2004-2006
    Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 2004-2006
    This is a list of members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 2004 to 2006, as elected at the 2004 state election:*Beattie Ministry...

  • Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 2001-2004
    Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 2001-2004
    This is a list of members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2004, as elected at the 2001 state election:*Beattie Ministry...

  • Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1998-2001
    Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1998-2001
    This is a list of members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1998 to 2001:This is a list of members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1998 to 2001:This is a list of members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1998 to 2001:...

  • Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1995-1998
    Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1995-1998
    This is a list of members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1995 to 1998, as elected at the 1995 state election:*Queensland state election, 1995*Goss Ministry *Borbidge Ministry...


External links

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