Wendy Duncan

Wendy Maxine Duncan (née Tonkin; born 7 October 1954) is an Australian politician who was a National Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 2013 to 2017, representing the seat of Kalgoorlie. She was previously a member of the Legislative Council, representing the Agricultural Region from 2008 to 2009 and the Mining and Pastoral Region from 2009 to 2013. She is a patron of the Earbus Foundation of Western Australia.

Early life Duncan was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, to Shirley Maxine (née Davies) and Stephen John Tonkin. She and her siblings were raised on her parents' sheep station, and received their early education from the School of the Air. Duncan later boarded at Methodist Ladies' College in Perth. After leaving school, she spent a year in South Africa through the Rotary Youth Exchange, and then enrolled at the University of Western Australia, eventually graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and Australian history. Duncan worked for the National Farmers' Federation in Canberra from 1977 to 1979, and also completed a postgraduate diploma at the Canberra College of Advanced Education (now the University of Canberra). Returning to Western Australia, she married Ian Murray Duncan in 1980, with whom she had four children, and then worked part-time at legal firms in Kalgoorlie and Esperance. She later worked in various administrative positions for the Shire of Esperance. In her inaugural speech, she expressed concerns about foreign ownership of Australian resources, economic rationalism, the dominance of the two major parties and the neglect of regional and rural areas.

At the 2008 state election, Duncan transferred to the Mining and Pastoral Region, allowing a former party leader, Max Trenorden, to take her old seat. In April 2012, Duncan won preselection for the seat of Kalgoorlie at the 2013 state election. At the election, in April 2013, she received 56.3 percent of the two-candidate-preferred vote, becoming the first member of the party to win the seat since its creation in 1901. After the election, she was elected deputy speaker to Michael Sutherland.

In December 2014, Duncan stated that she might consider becoming an independent, having been overlooked a second time for a ministerial position during a cabinet reshuffle. She also warned her party not to "get too focused on agriculture. Royalties for Regions comes from mining and petroleum royalties, so don't turn your back on the regions they come from." However, she re-affirmed her commitment to the party shortly after. Duncan announced in December 2015 that she would retire from parliament at the 2017 state election.