Judi Moylan

The Honourable Judi Moylan AO
Minister for the Status of Women
In office 9 October 1997 – 21 October 1998
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Jocelyn Newman
Succeeded by	Jocelyn Newman
Minister for Family Services
In office 11 March 1996 – 9 October 1997
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Rosemary Crowley
Succeeded by	Warwick Smith
Member of the Australian Parliament for Pearce
In office 13 March 1993 – 5 August 2013
Preceded by	Fred Chaney
Succeeded by	Christian Porter
Personal details
Born	(1944-02-24) 24 February 1944 Guildford, Western Australia, Australia
Political party	Liberal
Occupation	Lecturer, company director

Judith Eleanor Moylan AO (born 24 February 1944) is a former Australian politician. She served in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2013, representing the Western Australian seat of Pearce for the Liberal Party. She served as Minister for Family Services (1996–1997) and Minister for the Status of Women (1997–1998) in the early years of Howard government and was known for her liberal views.

Early life

Moylan was born on 24 February 1944 in Guildford, Western Australia. She completed a diploma in real estate management at Perth Technical College. She obtained a real estate licence in 1979 and subsequently established her own real estate business. Moylan was also a TAFE coordinator and lecturer from 1984 to 1987. She was president of the Midland and Districts Chamber of Commerce from 1990 to 1991.

Politics

Moylan was first elected to parliament at the 1993 federal election. She was the first woman to hold a WA seat in the House of Representatives for the Liberal Party. She was a supporter of John Hewson in the 1994 leadership spill, in which Hewson was defeated by Alexander Downer. She was subsequently appointed to Downer's shadow ministry as the shadow small business minister.

Following the Coalition's victory at the 1996 federal election, Moylan was appointed Minister for Family Services in the Howard government. She was moved to the status of women portfolio in October 1997 and dropped from the ministry after the 1998 election. In November 1997 she appeared in a television advertising supporting a "Yes" vote in the republic referendum, alongside other Liberal ministers Amanda Vanstone and John Fahey.

Moylan was a leading member of the Liberal Party's "small-l liberal" wing, which made her stand out in an increasingly conservative party. In June 2005 she joined a backbench revolt led by Liberal colleague Petro Georgiou in an attempt to end the system of mandatory detention in Australia of asylum seekers. On 28 July 2011, she announced she would stand down at the next federal election.