Susan Templeman

Early life and education Susan Raye Templeman grew up in Sydney. Her father, an accountant, and mother, a public school music teacher, were from the country. The family owned newsagencies in West Lindfield and Strathfield, with Templeman regularly working the morning paper run with her father. Templeman credits her upbringing in the newsagency for her becoming a journalist.

Templeman attended Killara High School and Strathfield Girls High School. She spent an additional six months of her secondary education at Colegio Mochis in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico as part of a year as a Rotary exchange student. Templeman stated that the exchange:"Opened my eyes to the world and to the challenges of inequality and discrimination in a way my seven public schools had not." Templeman graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts in communications.

Career

Journalist Templeman began her career in January 1985, during the second Hawke term, as a journalist in the Canberra Press Gallery, at Old Parliament House. At the time she was the youngest permanent journalist in the press gallery. She covered the 1987 election campaign.

In 1991, Templeman became a media trainer, establishing Media Skills (which later became the company Templeman Consulting Pty Ltd). Templeman has been described as "one of Australia's most successful media trainers".

Political career Templeman joined the Labor Party during John Howard's term in office. Describing her reasons for joining the Party, Templeman said:"I could not sit by and see Australia becoming a backwards-looking and defensive society. Apparently, we no longer cared about being a republic or about Aboriginal reconciliation. We moved away from inclusion and we distanced ourselves from Asia. That was not the Australia I wanted for my children. So I joined the Labor Party, with no clear ambition other than to help get rid of John Howard. Not a bad one." The preselection was marred with controversy, and required the intervention of the ALP's national executive, which ordered a rank-and-file preselection. Templeman, a member of the Socialist Left Faction, or hard left, of the ALP, was locked in a bitter battle with former Blue Mountains mayor, Adam Searle, a member of the Ferguson Left, or soft left. Templeman, who was touted as a "Western Sydney soccer mum", lost, with Labor suffering a 1.54-point two-party preferred swing, delivering the seat to former Member for Greenway and Liberal candidate for Macquarie, Louise Markus.

Templeman was pre-selected again in 2013, suffering a 3.32-point swing against her. She was pre-selected for a third time in 2016. At the 2016 election, Templeman defeated the incumbent Louise Markus, winning the Division of Macquarie with a 6.7-point two-party preferred swing towards her. Following her re-election in 2019, Templeman was appointed as the Deputy Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network.

Templeman announced that she would seek preselection to recontest the seat of Macquarie in 2019 Australian federal election. Templeman was preselected unopposed.

In 2019, Templeman defeated Liberal candidate and Hawkesbury City Councillor Sarah Richards, with the vote so close that counting continued for 16 days before a result was announced. Despite a 2.0-point two-party preferred swing against Labor in Macquarie, Templeman saw a 2.75-point swing towards her in the primary vote. Templeman was returned to the seat with a margin of 0.38 points, or 371 votes making it the most marginal Federal seat in Australia.

Following her re-election in 2019, Templeman was appointed as the Deputy Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network, and the Standing Committee on Petitions. In 2021 she was named as a member of the House Select Committee on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. and is a supporter of the Australian Republican Movement, citing the push for Australia to become a republic as one of the driving forces for her membership of the Australian Labor Party.

Following the closure of the Manus Island Detention Centre, Templeman declared opposition to Australia's system of offshore detention – a stance directly at odds with the platform of the Labor Party. Templeman has expressed similar opposition, contrary to party policy, to the Australian live export industry following the release of footage showing 2,400 live export sheep dying during the journey.

Templeman was the subject of media criticism for opposing the planned Western Sydney Airport. The proposed airport is a topic of debate within Templeman's electorate, with many residents opposed to the project for environmental and quality of life reasons.

In January 2018, Templeman and other community activists joined a lock-on protest at Windsor Bridge to stop the Roads & Maritime Services from beginning dig works at Thompson Square, the oldest public square in Australia. Templeman was forcibly and controversially removed from the protest by police, and was issued with two infringement notices for failing to move on from the protest site.

Templeman has been an advocate for the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, and has described Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Territories as imprisoning Palestinians. She was a critic of Australia's decision to vote against an independent inquiry into Israel's response to the 2018 Gaza border protests, Templeman has been a supporter of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), and visited Palestine in November 2017 as part of a study tour sponsored by APAN. A member of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties – the committee with principal oversight over the TPP and TPP-11 – She said that she would push for side letters with parties to the TPP-11 to be sought to remove the ISDS provisions.

Personal life Templeman lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband, Ron Fuller – the former Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV News Chief of Staff. In 2013, just two months after her defeat in the 2013 Australian Federal Election, Templeman's family home in Winmalee was destroyed in the 2013 Blue Mountains bushfires.

A former board director of Family Planning NSW and Sexual Health Australia, Templeman was the P&C president of her children's schools, Winmalee Public School and Winmalee High School.

Electoral history