Elizabeth Constable

Elizabeth Constable
In office 20 July 1991 – 9 March 2013
Preceded by	Andrew Mensaros
Succeeded by	Sean L'Estrange
Constituency	Churchlands
Personal details
Born	2 December 1943 Sydney, New South Wales
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Independent
Education	PhD
Profession	Lecturer

Elizabeth Constable (born 2 December 1943) is a former Independent member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, firstly representing the seat of Floreat after winning it at a 1991 by-election following the resignation of Andrew Mensaros. After the abolition of Floreat in a redistribution in 1994, Constable was elected to the electorate of Churchlands in 1996 then re-elected in 2001 and 2005. In September 2011 she became the longest-serving female State Parliamentarian in WA, breaking the record set by Florence Cardell-Oliver who served from February 1936 to April 1956. Constable retired at the 2013 election.

Constable was once a member of the Liberal Party before becoming an independent. She left the Liberal Party when it became clear that the favoured candidate of power-broker Noel Crichton-Browne would be given preselection for the safe seat of Floreat at a 1991 by-election at her expense. Constable contested the seat as a conservative independent and won easily with 49% of the primary vote.

Constable followed most of her constituents into Churchlands in 1996, and was comfortably reelected at every election since then. She held the seat with a majority of 23 percent, making it the safest seat in the state.

In November 2008, Constable was appointed Minister for Education, Tourism and Women's Interests in the Barnett Ministry, thereby becoming the first Independent to be appointed as a Minister of the Crown in Western Australia. She was removed from the tourism portfolio in December 2010, three months after she was the subject of a critical motion and three-hour-long debate in the Western Australian Parliament. The motion that read "That this house expresses its grave concern at the continued decline of the Western Australian tourism industry and condemns the Minister for Tourism for her lack of interest and demonstrated failures in this portfolio" focussed on the drop in tourism visitation to Western Australia, questions over the direction of the Department of Tourism and the loss of a major event worth millions to the state's tourism sector.

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