Ms Sharon Claydon MP

Commonwealth of Australia Representative

Sharon Claydon is the Federal Member for Newcastle. She was first elected in September 2013, becoming just the sixth member for Newcastle since Federation in 1901. Sharon is Deputy Chair of the House of Representatives Social Policy and Legal Affairs Standing Committee and serves on the House Indigenous Affairs Committee and the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.

She is also Deputy Chair of the Joint Select Committee on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – Oversight of redress related recommendations, and serves as a member of the National Apology to Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Reference Group.

In March 2015, she became a Member of the Speaker’s Panel, deputising for the Speaker in the House of Representatives.

As a member of the Federal Labor Caucus, Sharon is the Chair of the Status of Women Committee and the Chair of Labor’s Medicare Taskforce. She is also Co-Convenor of the Parliamentary Friends of Carers and the UN Parliamentary Group.

Sharon is a fifth generation Novocastrian with strong connections to her local community. She is an Honours graduate in Anthropology and, before entering Parliament, worked in remote Aboriginal communities and the community-based disability services sector. Sharon also served in local government as a Newcastle City Councillor.