Louise Markus

Louise Markus MP
Member of the Australian Parliament for Greenway
In office 9 October 2004 – present
Preceded by	Frank Mossfield
Majority	38,381 (50.58%)
Personal details
Born	(1958-09-06) 6 September 1958 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia
Spouse	Jim Markus
Children	Joshua and Hannah
Alma mater	University of New South Wales
Profession	Social worker
Website	www.louisemarkus.com.au

Louise Markus (born 6 September 1958 in Sydney, New South wales) is an Australian politician who was elected to the House of Representatives as member for the Division of Greenway, New South Wales for the Liberal Party of Australia at the 2004 federal election, in a very close result.

She was educated at the University of New South Wales, graduating in social work, and was a community worker running the Hillsong Church's drug and alcohol outreach service in Blacktown prior to entering politics.

Subsequent to the 2004 election, allegations were made in the NSW State Parliament that Mrs Markus had directly benefited from unauthorised campaign materials containing false statements in an attempt to capture racist voter sentiment against her Labor opponent, and that this was consistent with a broader sentiment held by parts of the Liberal hard right. These allegations were subsequently reported in the media.

The situation was very similar to the later 2007 Lindsay pamphlet scandal, in which unauthorised election materials were distributed in an apparent attempt to stir up anti-muslim sentiment. This was traced back to members of the Liberal party campaign.

Markus retained the seat of Greenway with a comfortable margin in the 2007 election, although with a nominal swing of 6.85% against her on a two-party preferred basis.

Following the 2007 election, she was made Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Citizenship.

She lives in Riverstone, in the north of her electorate. At the time of the 2004 election she did not live in the Greenway electorate. A September 2006 redistribution of boundaries saw her residence included in the electorate. The northward shift in electorate boundaries also saw her seat change from marginal to safe.

She is married with two children.