Karlene Maywald

Karlene Ann Maywald (born 26 May 1961) is an Australian National Party politician who represented the seat of Chaffey in the South Australian House of Assembly from October 1997 until March 2010. During her tenure, from 2004 until 2010, she was the Minister for the River Murray and Minister for Water Security in the Rann Labor government.

Political career

A small businessperson before entering Parliament, Maywald was first elected to parliament at the 1997 state election on a margin of 2.6 percent. In contrast to federal politics and in some other states, the Nationals do not have a coalition agreement with the Liberal Party in South Australia so she sat as an independent backbencher during the term of the Liberal Government, voting against the privatisation of ETSA. In 1998, during her first term in Parliament, Maywald became the first member of parliament to give birth to a child while in office when her daughter Tilly Rose was born.

Winning an increased majority at the 2002 state election on a 14 percent two-candidate preferred margin, Maywald voted for a Kerin Liberal government over a Rann Labor Government and later voted against the state government's industrial relations package. In 2004, however, Maywald was convinced to become a minister in the Labor government, but signed a comprehensive agreement with Labor reserving her right to vote against any government initiative which affected her electorate or the business community. This informal ALP-NAT coalition (the first since 1935) caused uproar^{[citation needed]}, with Christopher Pyne calling for Maywald's expulsion from the Nationals and Patrick Secker calling for a corruption enquiry in to the appointment^{[citation needed]} - neither eventuated. Maywald stated she would support either party who took government at the 2006 state election. The agreement with Labor included a commitment to retain her as a minister if Labor won the 2006 election^{[citation needed]} so Maywald remained a minister after Labor's 2006 election win. At that election she increased her vote to a 17 percent two-candidate margin.

An Advertiser poll in August 2008 revealed a decrease in the National vote in Chaffey. The poll of 460 voters conducted in her electorate found the National primary vote has fallen to just 11 percent, from a peak of 53.3 percent (67.2 after preferences) at the 2006 election. Some critics of the poll argued that without stating the candidate, and only naming the party, the poll deprived Maywald of name recognition. A February 2010 poll which included candidates names found 27 percent support for the Nationals, with a two-candidate margin against the Liberals of 50.5 to 49.5 percent.

Maywald lost her seat of Chaffey to Liberal candidate Tim Whetstone in the 2010 election after a two-candidate preferred swing of 20 percent.

External links

• National Party biography
• Parliament Profile
• Poll Bludger electorate profile
• Text of agreement between Maywald and the Labor government (2004) at the Wayback Machine (archived September 14, 2009)