Maxine Mc Kew

Maxine Mc Kew

Maxine Margaret McKew (born 22 July 1953), is a former Australian politician and journalist; she was the Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government in the Rudd Ministry and the First Gillard Ministry. Between 2007 and 2010, she was the member of the House of Representatives for the Division of Bennelong, New South Wales. Until 2007, the seat was held by the then Prime Minister John Howard, who had been the member for 33 years. She was only the second person to unseat a sitting Australian prime minister in their own electorate since Jack Holloway defeated Stanley Bruce in 1929; and the third person to unseat the leader of a major party, after Neville Newell defeated Charles Blunt, leader of the National Party, in 1990.

At the 2010 Federal election she lost her seat to the Liberal Party candidate, John Alexander.

Before entering politics, McKew was an award-winning broadcast journalist. She hosted a number of programmes on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television and radio, most recently Lateline and The 7.30 Report.