Robyn Parker

Robyn Mary Parker (born 3 August 1958), is a former Australian politician, and was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Maitland for the Liberal Party from 2011 to 2015 and was previously a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales between 2003 and 2011.

She subsequently worked as a development officer with a focus on Children's Services for the City of Sunshine between 1979 and 1980; a Family Day Care Co-ordinator for the City of Oakleigh between 1981 and 1982, and for Queensland Centacare between 1982 and 1983.

After moving to Maitland in the mid-1980s, she was the Co-ordinator of a mobile resource service between 1984 and 1995 and she also taught child studies for TAFE between 1985 and 1992.

At Maitland, she developed one of the first mobile community outreach programs for that city.

Parker was the Vice-President of the Liberal Party of New South Wales in 1997–2000, and was the president of the NSW Women's Council in 2000–2003.

As head of the Liberal Women's Forum, she supported the training and mentoring of women in all levels of Government and initiated the Pathways to Political Leadership Programme.

As Minister for the Environment, Parker has sought to increase penalties for pollution and develop an independent Environment Protection Authority.

She pursued a science-based approach to recovery of threatened species and secured additional funding for these programs.

During Parker's ministry, the EPA also introduced an energy and waste policy aimed at business recycling across NSW, and programs to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

In three years as heritage minister Parker delivered a record number of Maitland buildings to the state heritage register including Maitland's Jewish Cemetery.

During her time as Minister for the Environment, Parker also oversaw the creation of the most comprehensive air quality network in Australia

Her interest in politics became evident in 1999, when she became a political advisor to Senator John Tierney but left in November 2001 to become a manager at a skin cancer centre in Lake Macquarie.

At the clinic she developed and implemented a program to encourage women to take leadership positions within politics, particularly the Liberal party.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported " It was also reported that there was a pattern going back more than a decade with 32 documented serious pollution incidents in New South Wales since 1999 in which companies failed to notify authorities within 24 hours. Ms Parker has been criticised for not notifying the public about the incident until Thursday afternoon, three days later, despite being informed on Wednesday evening."

Parker was the New South Wales Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Heritage in the O'Farrell government from 2011 until April 2014.

Parker was succeeded by Rob Stokes in the Baird cabinet.

Parker was born to parents, Adeline and Campbell McEwen.

Her family has its origins in the dairy farming district of Taranaki, New Zealand.

She studied at the Palmerston North Teachers' College at Massey University, New Zealand and obtained a Diploma of Teaching.

Parker and the Environment Protection Authority received a lot of criticism following a hexavalent chromium emission at Orica's ammonium nitrate plant in Newcastle in August 2011;.

Parker refused to apologise for why there was a delay in informing the public of the spill claiming she was left off of a crucial departmental email.

The Parliamentary report showed that Parker was notified about the incident by the Office of Environment and Heritage on 10 August 2011 at 4.23pm.

In the morning of 11 August 2011, the Premier's Chief of Staff was notified by Parker's office and Parker informed the parliament at 3:30pm.

It was reported that Parker received media training from journalist John Mangos to handle the crisis.

The head of Orica claimed he tried to contact Parker about the spill three times with no success.

Parker responded "The time for Orica to contact the Government and environmental authorities was as soon as the Kooragang Island leak occurred – not seven days later".

In November 2011, NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson called on the Premier to sack Parker saying "the job of a minister is to take responsibility for protecting the community and from day one, Ms Parker has clearly failed to live up to that standard".

On 11 October 2011, Parker introduced the Protection of the Environment Legislation Amendment Bill into the Parliament aimed at strengthening the ability of the Environment Protection Authority to regulate serious pollution incidents by significantly improving notification requirements and pollution incident response management provisions and increase penalties for non-compliance.

The Bill was passed on 13 October 2011.

In a budget estimates hearing in 2011, Parker stated "logging protects koalas."

In reference to this quote, Parker stated "[It] doesn't help koalas you know, this was a heated exchange," and "I was interrupted continuously and so I've missed a couple of words out in one sentence."

Opposition environment spokesperson Luke Foley said that Parker had broken her government's promise of protecting koalas.

Foley also said "Robyn Parker is allowing a national icon to be endangered thanks to her 'unsound ecological approach' "

In one of her last acts as Minister for Environment, Parker launched a master plan for Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.

An upper house inquiry into the Orica incident was released in February 2012, the inquiry's report stated "The delay by the Minister for the Environment in informing the public regarding the leak, whether by press statement, ministerial statement or other means, was unacceptable" The inquiry also stated "in this instance Minister Parker's actions led to a great deal of political debate ultimately increasing public concern and confusion about the leak."

Immediately after the Orica incident the Government held an independent inquiry with an independent chairperson.

Brendan O'Reilly, the former director general of the NSW Premier's department.

Mr O'Reilly's report stated that "The public were exposed to the media reporting of the political debate with claims and counter claims being made. This resulted in increased concerns and confusion in the minds of the public."

Securing the International World Parks Congress for Sydney in November 2014, greater support for Taronga Zoo's conservation program, the

introduction of legislation banning solaria, making NSW the second in the world to do so (a lead other states have followed) and provided increased funding for community, local government, not for profit and aboriginal heritage projects throughout New South Wales.