Marie Ficarra

Australian politician
The basics

Quick Facts

IntroAustralian politician
PlacesAustralia
isPolitician
Work fieldPolitics
Gender
Female
Birth25 March 1954
Age70 years
Politics:Liberal Party Of Australia
The details

Biography

Marie Ann Ficarra (born 25 March 1954) is an Australian politician who was a Liberal Party of Australia member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2007 to 2015. She was previously a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Georges River, but was defeated during the landslide election of 1999. She was the Shadow Minister for the Environment for the New South Wales Opposition.

Representative history

Ficarra was elected to Hurstville City Council in 1980 to become one of few young women in local government at the time. She was later the Deputy Mayor and then Mayor of Hurstville City and served in these roles for 16 years until 1995. During this time she was elected president and later life member of the Australian Local Government Women's Association.

On 28 April 2014, Ficarra stood aside as a member of the parliamentary Liberal Party following implication in a hearing of the Independent Commission Against Corruption that she had solicited a donation to the Liberal Party from a prohibited donor. She denied the allegations, but agreed to stand aside from the party and sit on the crossbench as an independent until the matters were resolved.

Official parliamentary roles:
PositionStartEnd
Member, Health Care Complaints Commission Committee19951999
Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly25 March 19955 March 1999
Member of the NSW Legislative Council24 March 20076 March 2015
Member for Georges River25 March 19955 March 1999
Member, Standing Committee on Privacy1 December 19961 December 1998
Parliamentary Information Technology Committee1 December 19961 December 1998
Member, General Purpose Standing Committee No. 229 May 200714 May 2014
Member, Standing Committee on Social Issues29 May 20074 March 2011
Shadow Minister for Environment1 January 19981 January 1999

Professional history

Ficarra worked in her early career as a scientist investigating children's muscular dystrophy. She became state manager for Hoechst Australia's Behring Diagnostics and later general manager of Cytyc Australia for Australia and New Zealand for many years. Cytyc introduced into Australiac new cervical cancer screening technology and other diagnostics applications related to sexual health.

Education

Ficarra has a BSc (Hons) from the University of Sydney. Following graduation she became a senior tutor at the university in histology and physiology, teaching medical, dental, veterinary science and science students.

As government affairs adviser to Merck Sharp and Dohme Australia, she assisted in obtaining federal government approval and reimbursement for many vital pharmaceuticals including the cervical cancer vaccine. During that time she was elected for three years to the executive of the NSW Liberal Party of which she has been a member for over 30 years.

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