Background
Elliot was born in Brisbane, Queensland and was educated at the University of Queensland, where she graduated in Arts.
Elliot was born in Brisbane, Queensland and was educated at the University of Queensland, where she graduated in Arts.
University of Queensland.
Between 2007 and 2010, Elliot was the Minister for Ageing and is currently a backbencher. She was a Queensland Police officer between 1990 and 1997 and was later Juvenile Justice Conference Convener with the New South Wales Department of Juvenile Justice. Elliot also holds a Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management & Industrial Relations from Griffith University.
In a considerable upset at the 2004 election, Elliot defeated the National Party"s Larry Anthony, a minister in the Howard government.
Richmond had been in the hands of a conservative party for all but six years since Federation, and for 66 of those years by the National Party. Foreign much of that time, it had been a reasonably safe National seat.
However, the growth of Tweed Heads and other coastal communities, as well as the concurrent loss of its more rural territory, has seen it become an increasingly urban seat since the 1980s. Elliot trailed Anthony by 11 points on the first count and was well behind him for most of the night.
However, on the seventh count, a Green candidate"s preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Elliot, allowing her to defeat Anthony by only 301 votes.
The 2007 election saw Elliot re-elected over the Nationals" Sue Page. She picked up a swing of over 7.4 points, which was significantly larger than the New South Wales state average and technically made Richmond a safe Labor seat. She retained the seat at the 2010 election with only a small swing against Labor.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced she would be part of his new ministry on 29 November 2007, as Minister for Ageing.
She stepped aside from the portfolio ahead of the formation of the Second Gillard Ministry on 11 September 2010. On 11 September 2010 Elliot was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and held this position until a reconfiguration of the ministry on 4 February 2013.
Eliot retained Richmond for Labor in the 2013 election even as the Coalition regained power, marking only the second time (the first being her initial victory in 2004) that a non-Labor government had been in office without Richmond.