Penny Sharpe

Penelope Gail Sharpe (born 22 October 1970) is an Australian politician. She was an Australian Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2005 to 2015. Sharpe was appointed to the casual vacancy caused by Carmel Tebbutt's resignation to stand for a by-election in the Legislative Assembly seat of Marrickville, and was re-elected at the 2011 election.

In 2015, Sharpe resigned from the Legislative Council to contest the Legislative Assembly seat of Newtown at the 2015 election. Newtown was a new seat partially replacing Tebbutt's abolished seat of Marrickville, which had been left open by Tebbutt's retirement. She was defeated in Newtown by Greens candidate Jenny Leong, and was subsequently re-appointed to the Legislative Council to fill her own vacancy. Sharpe, a mother of three, was the first open lesbian to serve in the New South Wales parliament.

Early life

Sharpe was born in Canberra, but later shifted to Sydney. She studied food technology at the University of New South Wales, where she became involved in student politics. She was elected president of the University of New South Wales Student Guild in 1993, the same year that she met her long-term partner, Jo Tilly. Sharpe rose to national prominence the following year when she became president of the National Union of Students. As president, she was involved in a national campaign against the Keating Labor government's higher education reforms, as well as in the partially successful Victorian battle against attempts by its Liberal government to introduce voluntary student unionism there.