Lucy Wicks (politician)

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For other people named Lucy Wicks, see Lucy Wicks (disambiguation).

Lucy Wicks
MP
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Robertson
Assumed office
7 September 2013
Preceded byDeborah O'Neill
Personal details
Born
Lucy Elizabeth Warren

(1973-01-01) 1 January 1973 (age 48)
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Political partyLiberal Party of Australia
Children2
Alma materUniversity of Sydney
OccupationTeacher, public relations manager
Websitehttp://www.lucywicks.com.au

Lucy Elizabeth Wicks (née Warren; born 1 January 1973) is an Australian politician. She has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Robertson in New South Wales, since her election in September 2013.

Early life[]

Wicks was born in Canberra on 1 January 1973. [1] She is the oldest of five children born to Mary (née Gilligan) and Max Warren. On her mother's side she is a descendant of Francis Gilligan, an Irishman who was transported to Australia as a convict under the Whiteboy Acts.[2]

Wicks grew up in Canberra and country New South Wales where her father worked as a schoolteacher. She lived for periods in Cowra and Walcha, before the family settled in Point Clare on the Central Coast.[2] She attended the Gosford Christian Community School in Narara where her father was the principal.[3] Wicks holds the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English literature from the University of Sydney.[4] After graduating she returned to Gosford Christian Community School as a teacher from 1996 to 1998.[1][3]

From 1999 to 2003 Wicks worked as a Liberal Party staffer and electorate officer. She later worked in corporate affairs and communications for Telstra from 2004 to 2011, and as a government relations adviser from 2011 to 2012.[1] In her twenties, she "suffered with massive depression from PTSD arising from a very significant workplace bullying incident that took me years to recover from".[5]

Politics[]

Wicks was a state vice-president of the Young Liberals from 2001 to 2002. She later served as president of the state women's council and state vice-president in the Liberal Party of Australia (New South Wales Division) from 2011 to 2012.[4]

Parliament[]

Wicks was appointed as the Liberal candidate for the federal seat of Robertson in 2012.[6] The state executive chose not to hold a preselection for the seat in order to "overcome entrenched local factions", with Wicks reportedly endorsed by opposition leader Tony Abbott. As a result some local members refused to campaign for her.[7] Wicks was nonetheless elected to the House of Representatives at the 2013 federal election, defeating the incumbent Australian Labor Party (ALP) member Deborah O'Neill.

Wicks was appointed to the speaker's panel in February 2015.[1] She was narrowly re-elected at the 2016 election.[8] She has served on various parliamentary committees and in July 2019 she was appointed chair of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit.[1]

In 2020 it was reported that Wicks had attended the Hope Unlimited Church, a Pentecostal congregation, on a number of occasions, and that the church had recently been awarded a government grant. She subsequently stated that she was not a member of the church and had not been involved in the awarding of the grant, and that she attends multiple churches within her electorate, "usually at the request of a church for their special events".[9]

Personal life[]

Wicks has two children with her husband Chris. The family lived in Springfield until 2017, when they sold their home and began renting in Terrigal. The couple also own an investment property in Dee Why.[10]

In 2017 Wicks announced she had been diagnosed by an integrative medicine practitioner with chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS), or sick building syndrome, following symptoms that included chest infections, chronic fatigue and memory lapses. She was advised to "avoid buildings with mould and other biotoxins" and had to cut back on her parliamentary duties depending on the location. She lobbied for a parliamentary inquiry into CIRS similar to the one into Lyme disease in 2017[11] and was a committee member for the Inquiry into Biotoxin-related Illnesses in Australia in 2018.[12]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ a b "Maiden speech". Hansard. Parliament of Australia. 5 December 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Robertson Electorate: St Philip's Christian College". Hansard. Parliament of Australia. 5 March 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  4. ^ a b "About Lucy". Lucy Wicks. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  5. ^ Maddox, Garry (3 May 2019). "Heroin, crime, depression and illness: The human face of the candidates for Robertson". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  6. ^ "Liberals candidate gets to work in Robertson". ABC News. 25 June 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  7. ^ Barnes, Denice (14 March 2013). "Rebel Libs refuse to help Robertson candidate Wicks, dubbing her 'Lucy who?'". Central Coast Express. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  8. ^ Taylor, Matt (3 July 2016). "Lucy Wicks all but claims victory but dodges ATO questions". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  9. ^ "Liberal MP Lucy Wicks denies conflict of interest over grant to church that called her a 'dear friend'". Guardian Australia. 20 February 2020. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  10. ^ Chancellor, Jonathan (27 May 2017). "Lucy Wicks sells Springfield home". RealEstate.com.au. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  11. ^ Baker, Jordan (20 August 2017). "Lucy Wicks MP reveals mystery illness of high mould sensitivity". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  12. ^ "Report on the Inquiry into Biotoxin-related Illnesses in Australia". Archived from the original on 19 May 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2021.

External links[]

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Member for Robertson
2013–present 		Incumbent
Retrieved from ""