Michelle Rowland Politician
Michelle Anne Rowland (born 16 November 1971), an Australian politician, is a member of the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Greenway representing the Australian Labor Party. At the 2010 Australian federal election, Rowland won the seat for Labor following the 2009 electoral distribution, making Greenway notionally Labor, on a margin of 5.7%. The seat was previously held by Liberal Louise Markus, who contested the more marginal seat of Macquarie at the 2010 federal election.Rowland suffered a swing of 4.79 points against her, making Greenway one of the most marginal seats in the country. Rowland was re-elected to the seat at the 2013 federal election with an increased majority, and was also subsequently appointed to the Labor opposition's frontbench as Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications as well as Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism. In the lead-up to the 2013 election campaign opinion polls had shown that she would lose Greenway, but her subsequent victory was helped during the campaign by the blunder of her Liberal opponent Jaymes Diaz in not stating clearly the Coalition's policy on asylum seekers.