Rebekha Sharkie

Rebekha Sharkie
MP
Sharkie in 2025
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Mayo
Incumbent
Assumed office
28 July 2018
Preceded byHerself
In office
2 July 2016 – 11 May 2018
Preceded byJamie Briggs
Succeeded byHerself
Second Deputy Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives
In office
26 July 2022 – 31 March 2025
Serving with Ian Goodenough
SpeakerMilton Dick
Preceded bySharon Claydon
Succeeded byTerry Young
Personal details
BornRebekha Carina Che
(1972-08-24) 24 August 1972
Torbay, England
PartyCentre Alliance (2013–present)
Other political
affiliations
Liberal (2010–2012)[1]
Children3[1]
Alma materFlinders University
Signature
Websitewww.rebekhasharkie.com.au

Rebekha Carina Sharkie (née Che; born 24 August 1972) is an Australian politician who has been the member of parliament (MP) for the South Australian division of Mayo since 2016.

Prior to entering parliament Sharkie worked in the non-profit sector and as a political advisor to Liberal MP Jamie Briggs. After resigning from the Liberal Party she defeated Briggs at the 2016 federal election standing for the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), the party's only successful candidate in the House of Representatives. She resigned from parliament in 2018 during the parliamentary eligibility crisis, due to her British citizenship, but was re-elected at the 2018 Mayo by-election and subsequently at the 2019, 2022 and 2025 elections. Sharkie is typically regarded as an independent; her party was renamed the Centre Alliance in 2018 but ceased fielding other candidates after the 2019 election.

Early life and education

Sharkie was born on 24 August 1972[2] in Torbay, England in 1972 to British and American parents. The family moved to Australia when Sharkie was two years old.[1] She attended Cardijn College[3] and Eyensbury Senior College for her high school education and went on to study international relations and public policy at Flinders University.[4] Sharkie became a naturalised Australian on 19 March 2007, and formally renounced her British citizenship in 2016.[2]

Prior to working as a political advisor, Sharkie worked as a paralegal in Darwin and South Australia.[4] In 2012 she was appointed as national executive officer of Youth Connections, a service targeting youth employment. When that program was defunded by the Liberal government at the end of 2014, she became senior manager and head of donor relations at Helping Young People Achieve (HYPA), a charity assisting young disadvantaged people in South Australia.[4][1]

Early political involvement

As a high school student, Sharkie handed out how-to-vote cards for Australian Democrats candidate Janine Haines.[1] In 2006, she worked as a researcher for state Liberal leader Isobel Redmond.[4] In 2008, she worked as an electorate officer for federal Liberal MP Jamie Briggs for six months.[5] Sharkie also worked for South Australian state Liberal MP Rachel Sanderson.[1] Although she had worked for the Liberals for some time, she was only a formal member of the party from 2010 to 2012.[4]

Sharkie considered running for the Liberals in the 2014 state election in the safe seat of Schubert, only to be told that she needed the blessing of federal minister Christopher Pyne and federal senator Cory Bernardi, the highest-ranking federal MPs from the moderate and conservative factions of the SA Liberals, before seeking preselection. Sharkie told The Australian that when she learned she couldn't stand without the "anointing" of Pyne and Bernardi, she was appalled. She asked, "Are you serious? A branch doesn't choose?" Combined with her anger at the "ditch the witch" campaign against Julia Gillard, she was thus very receptive when then-independent Senator Nick Xenophon announced he was forming his own party to stand candidates in the upcoming federal election. Initially serving as a volunteer for the newly-formed Nick Xenophon Team, she ultimately agreed to stand in Mayo. Although Mayo had been a very safe Liberal seat for most of its existence, polling suggested that if Labor directed its preferences to Sharkie, she could take the seat off the Liberals.[6]

House of Representatives

Electoral record

At the 2016 federal election, Sharkie defeated Briggs with 55 percent of the two-candidate preferred vote.[7] On the first count, she finished only three points behind Briggs, who lost over 16 percent of his primary vote from 2013. This allowed her to ultimately defeat Briggs on Labor preferences. She is the first woman and the first non-Liberal member to represent Mayo.[8]

On 9 May 2018, Sharkie announced her resignation from the House of Representatives following the High Court of Australia ruling that Senator Katy Gallagher was ineligible to contest the 2016 election as a consequence of the 2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis. Like Gallagher, Sharkie had failed to complete renunciation of her British citizenship before nomination in the 2016 federal election.[9] She contested the 2018 Mayo by-election on 28 July, and was returned to parliament with a swing in her favour.[10]

Sharkie successfully defended her Mayo seat in the May 2019 federal election winning her seat with a two candidate preferred vote of 55.14%, up 2.22% on the previous election.[11] She was re-elected in the 2022 Australian federal election with the support of the Teal independents,[12] and re-elected to serve a fourth term in the 2025 Australian federal election.[13] Prior to the election she hinted at her support for a Liberal–National Coalition in a hung parliament.[14]

Party affiliation

Sharkie was the only Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) candidate elected to the House of Representatives at the 2016 election, joining Xenophon and Skye Kakoschke-Moore who were elected to the Senate.[5] In the House she joined the crossbench, consisting of five members not aligned to either major party.[15]

NXT changed its name to the Centre Alliance in April 2018, after Xenophon ceased his active involvement with the party.[16] Sharkie was the only candidate for Centre Alliance at the 2022 and 2025 elections. In a 2025 interview, she described it as a "party of one" and stated its continued existence was due to difficulties with electoral laws allowing the transfer of funds from a registered party to an independent.[17]

Political views and advocacy

Sharkie approached finance minister Mathias Cormann in 2019 about funding a research centre in the region that includes the complex ecosystems of the Coorong, Lower Lakes, and Murray Mouth. The Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth (CLLMM) Research Centre in Goolwa, run by the Goyder Institute for Water Research, was officially opened by Sharkie in early February 2024.[18]

In 2026, Sharkie announced that she would introduce a private member's bill to outlaw burning of the national flag, as well as the Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag. Her bill would have provided for offenders to be jailed for up to two years.[19]

Personal life

As of 2016, Rebekha is married to Nathan Sharkie.[5] They live in Birdwood, South Australia.[7] She has three children from a previous marriage, which ended around 2008.[20]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hyland, Anne (11 June 2016). "Rebekha Sharkie puts the election bite on Jamie Briggs". Australian Financial Review. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Sharkie, Rebekha Carina Che" (PDF). Statement in relation to citizenship - 45th Parliament. Parliament of Australia. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  3. ↑ Henson, Elizabeth; Bermingham, Kathryn (31 January 2022). "Old school ties: Where did SA's top politicians go to school?". The Advertiser. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 O'Malley, Nick (3 July 2016). "Election 2016: Meet Jamie Briggs slayer Rebekha Sharkie". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 16 September 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Evans, Simon (3 July 2016). "New Nick Xenophon MP Rebekha Sharkie says she no one-term wonder". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  6. ↑ Puddy, Rebecca (30 May 2016). "Federal election 2016: 'ditch the witch' drove Lib to Team Xenophon". The Australian.
  7. 1 2 Starick, Paul (3 July 2016). "Malcolm Turnbull courting new Mayo MP, Nick Xenophon Team's Rebekha Sharkie". The Advertiser. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  8. ↑ Brooks, Emily (2 July 2016). "NXT Candidate Rebekha Sharkie Wins Mayo, Knocks Off Briggs". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 3 July 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  9. ↑ Brown, Greg; Owens, Jared; Varga, Remy (9 May 2018). "PoliticsNow: Rebekha Sharkie, Justine Keay quit over citizenship". The Australian. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  10. ↑ "Super Saturday: Antony Green calls by-election wins for ALP, Centre Alliance". ABC. 28 July 2016. Archived from the original on 16 September 2024. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  11. ↑ "Mayo, SA". 2019 Federal Election. Canberra: Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  12. ↑ "ALP set to gain Boothby for first time in more than 70 years". ABC News. 21 May 2022. Archived from the original on 16 September 2024. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  13. ↑ "Mayo - Federal Electorate, Candidates, Results". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 31 March 2025.
  14. ↑ "'I'll call Dutton first': independent MP puts her cards on table". www.theaustralian.com.au.
  15. ↑ Dye, Josh (2 July 2016). "Australian federal election 2016: the crossbenchers likely to swing a hung Parliament". Archived from the original on 16 September 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  16. ↑ MacLennan, Leah (10 April 2018). "Nick Xenophon's federal party drops his name". Retrieved 30 June 2026.
  17. ↑ Puglisi, Leonardo (15 April 2025). "Rebekha Sharkie 'open to talking to both sides' in hung parliament". 6 News Australia.
  18. ↑ Horn, Caroline (4 February 2024). "Goolwa research centre to focus on climate change solutions for Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth". ABC News (Australia). Archived from the original on 16 September 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  19. ↑ Penberthy, David (8 February 2026). "MP launches push to make burning Australian and Indigenous flags illegal". The Australian. Retrieved 30 June 2026.
  20. ↑ Griffiths, Luke (25 July 2018). "Ex-husband denies threatening to contact Libs over Rebekha Sharkie". The Australian.
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