Julie Owens

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Julie Owens bigraphy, stories - Australian politician

Julie Owens : biography

17 October 1958 – Living

Julie Ann Owens (born 17 October 1958), Australian politician, has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 2004, representing the division of Parramatta, New South Wales. She was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, and was educated at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music (now a part of Griffith University) and at the University of Sydney. She was a small-business owner and head of the Association of Australian Independent Record Labels (AIR) before entering Parliament.

Qualifications and occupation before entering federal Parliament:

  • BA (Qld Conservatorium of Music), MBA (Syd).
  • Production Manager, Lyric Opera of Queensland 1985-89.
  • Senior Program Officer, Australia Council 1989-93.
  • Small business owner 1994-2000.
  • Chief Executive Officer, Association of Independent Record Labels 2000-04.

In the 2004 election campaign, Owens ran against the incumbent Liberal Ross Cameron. The campaign was notable for the admission of Cameron, a prominent family values campaigner, that he had had an extramarital affair, and Owens won the seat on preferences, despite a swing to the government in New South Wales.

Owens is a party backbencher and has been a member of the House of Representatives Standing committee for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts from December 2004. Following the resignation of Labor MP Craig Thomson from the chair of the Economics committee, Owens was appointed head of the committee.