Jackie Kelly

Jacqueline Marie Kelly (born 18 February 1964), former Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1996 until November 2007, representing the Division of Lindsay, New South Wales.

Early career
Jackie Kelly was born in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, and attended the Monte Sant' Angelo Mercy College, in North Sydney. She obtained a law degree from the University of Queensland, where she also attained a 'full blue' for rowing, and later represented Australia in the sport.

In 1987 she commenced work with the Corrective Services Department of Queensland and worked as a Probation and Parole Officer. In May 1989 Kelly was admitted to practice as a barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland. From 1989-1996 she was a Legal Officer (Squadron Leader) with the Royal Australian Air Force and in June 1995 she was awarded the Helsham prize for her services to the RAAF Legal Category.

Federal politics
In 1996, Jacqueline 'Jackie' Marie Kelly was elected to the seat of Lindsay, based around the suburb of Penrith on the western fringe of Sydney.

March 1996: The first time Jackie was elected was the general election on 2 March 1996, but she was later disqualified because of her RAAF employment (Subsection (iv) disqualifies those who hold an office of profit under the Crown or receive a Commonwealth pension ‘payable during the pleasure of the Crown’), and not having taken steps to renounce her New Zealand citizenship. (Section 44 of the Constitution sets out restrictions on who can be a candidate for Federal parliament. Any person who - (1) Is under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power.

October 1996: After ensuring a full resignation from the RAAF before submitting a nomination for election, and a complete citizenship renunciation, Jackie was re-elected at a by-election on 19 October 1996 with an increased majority.

October 1998: (The Goods and Services Tax (GST) election) Jackie was re-elected on a slim majority.

October 2004: Jackie was elected by a 10.52% majority.


 * Ministerial appointments
 *  Minister for Sport and Tourism from 21.10.1998 to 26.11.2001. 
 *  Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Sydney 2000 Games from 21.10.1998 to 30.1.2001. 
 *  Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister from 26.11.2001 to 26.10.2004. 

Political achievements
In 1999, Jackie hosted the International Drugs in Sport Summit to address doping issues ahead of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. While the first sitting Australian federal parliamentarian to give birth to a child was Ros Kelly in 1983, in 2000 Jackie Kelly became the first serving Australian Federal Minister to give birth to a child (a daughter named Dominique). In 2000, Kelly was the minister for sport and tourism while Sydney was hosting the Olympic Games. In 2001 Kelly was bullied by the TWU for describing the collapse of Ansett Airlines over her comment that the Ansett crisis was "about getting over a little blip and getting back into the very, very bright future that is ahead for tourism.". When Jackie was the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister (for the Office of the Status of Women), Jackie was instrumental in the development and implementation of the 'Baby Bonus' scheme, introduced in 2002, through to 2007. In 2006, Kelly was paired with Pavel Aubrecht when she competed on Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice and was eliminated third.

In May 2007 Kelly announced her intention to retire from federal politics at the 2007 election to be held later that year.

State politics
In February 2014, Kelly unsuccessfully contested the Liberal pre-selection for the seat of Penrith in the NSW parliament, held by Liberal Stuart Ayres. In October 2014, Jackie resigned her Liberal Party membership, stating "There's no local voice in the Liberal Party, there's no reason to be a member because the lobbyists are running the party," and the influence of lobbyists and the State Executive.

Kelly then contested Penrith at the 2015 New South Wales election as an independent but was unsuccessful against Liberal incumbent Ayres. She did, however, direct preferences to the ALP. That contributed to a significant swing away from Ayres on a two-party preferred basis.

Sporting achievements
Jackie Kelly was part of Australia's elite rowing program. She was in line for selection for the Australian rowing team to the Seoul Olympics in 1988 before Rowing Australia opted not to send a women’s team to Seoul. In 1986, Kelly represented Australia in the under 23s rowing, Scull, Double scull, as well as the Nationals and she has competed in the 1994 World Masters rowing in Brisbane (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze), the 1997 Australian Masters Rowing Championships in Canberra (1 gold, 1 bronze) and the 1997 World Masters Rowing Championships in Adelaide (2 gold).

Personal life
Jackie Kelly married Gary Clark, a local orthodontist, on 5 December 1998. Jackie has 2 children (Dominique and Lachlan).

Pamphlet scandal
On 21 November 2007, three days before the federal election, an anonymous member of the Liberal Party contacted the assistant secretary of the ALP, Luke Foley, with information that a flyer linking Foley's party with an fictional Islamic organisation was to be distributed in letterboxes throughout the suburb of St Marys by Liberal members. (Due to a redistribution of electoral boundaries, St Marys had recently been moved from the safe Labor seat of Chifley into Jackie Kelly's seat of Lindsay.) Kelly's husband Gary Clark was caught with four other people in the electorate of Lindsay about to letter-box some fake pamphlets purporting to be from an Islamic group (which did not exist), and thanking the Labor Party for supporting Muslim terrorists. Two Liberal Party members (including Jeff Egan, and the husband of the Liberal candidate for Lindsay Greg Chijoff) were forced to resign from the party. Jackie Kelly, already having retired, categorically denied any knowledge of the pamphlets prior to their distribution, stating "My view is that it is a bit of a Chaser-style prank," when confronted unsuspecting at her children's school drop-off the following morning. referring to when The Chaser had done a stunt in Mosman that involved claiming a mosque was to be built in the neighbourhood and asking for comments from people on the street.