Kirstie Marshall

Kirstie Marshall is a notable Australian aerial skier and Victorian state politician.

Kirstie was an ex-gymnast who became an aerial skier at Mt Buller, Victoria. During her skiing career Kirstie won over 40 World Cup medals, including 17 World Cup gold medals. Kirstie competed in aerial skiing as a demonstration sport at the 1992 Winter Olympics, and as a medal event in 1994 and 1998, where she came sixth and fourteenth respectively.

In December 2002, aged 33, Kirstie was elected as a Member of Parliament in the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the Australian Labor Party.

On 26 February 2003, she was ejected from the Lower House chamber for breastfeeding her 12-day-old baby, Charlotte Louise. A section of the Parliamentary rules, namely Standing Order 30, states: "Unless by order of the House, no Member of this House shall presume to bring any stranger into any part of the House appropriated to the Members of this House while the House, or a Committee of the whole House, is sitting." As there is no age limit to ‘strangers in the House’ (non-elected persons), only MPs and certain parliamentary staff are allowed in the House during sitting times.Australian Broadcasting Corporation: [http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s793397.htm Victorian MP and baby ejected from House] ]

Subsequently, the Speaker of the House set aside a room in which female MPs can feed their children without violating the Standing Orders.

Early life & sporting career

Kirstie was born in Melbourne on 21/04/69 and grew up in Black Rock, Victoria with parents, Ron and Anne, older sister, Sascha and younger brother, Carey. Kirstie attended Black Rock Primary school (Prep - Yr 6), then Mentone Girls High School (now Mentone Secondary College) before transferring to Firbank Girls' Grammar School in Yr 9. She moved to Taylors College for Yr 12.

Kirstie, along with her siblings, started skiing from the age of 4 at the Mt. Baw Baw ski resort in Victoria, Australia. In 1981 the family became regular skiers at the Mt. Buller ski resort, one of the largest ski resorts in Victoria.

In 1987 Kirstie joined Team Buller, a Freestyle ski team run by Geoff Lipshut, Peter Braun, Eyal Talmore, Tim Skate and David Freedman based on Mt. Buller.

The creation of a skier-exchange program for Freestyle Aerialists saw three Japanese skiers spend the 1987 winter in Mt. Buller one of whom, Takayo Yokoyama, was nearing the end of his career and was interested in becoming an International coach. With little prospects in his native country, the chance meeting in Australia saw Kirstie being offered a four month scholarship in Inawashiro, Listel Ski Fantasia, the center for Freestyle Skiing in Japan, with Takayo as her coach.

Following the 1988 Australian Freeslyle competition where she placed first, Kirstie decided to follow the European winter and compete on the four month long World Cup Season. Sponsored by a Melbourne based travel company, she headed overseas as the only Australian representative in either Aerials, Moguls or Ballet (Acrobatics).

Whilst not truly competitive with her single back layout and single front tuck, she completed her rookie season finishing in 10th position, at that time the highest placing by an Australian winter athlete, male or female, in any winter sport. In 1990 Kirstie won her first World Cup event. In 1992, Kirstie was crowned World Champion, with six World Cup victories. She was Australia’s flag bearer at at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, where she was placed sixth in the women’s aerial skiing event – the nation’s best Olympic result at the time. She also competed in the Winter Olympics at Nagano in 1998. Kirstie set several world records over the course of her skiing career, including becoming the first woman in history to score over 100 points on a single competition jump, with a score of 104.37. Her 17th career World Cup gold medal in 1998 tied her for the all time record for career World Cup aerial victories with Cannadian skier Marie Claude Asselin, who retired in 1984.

Kirstie discovered current Australian aerial skier, David Morris, while attending a gymnastics display at his local club, which is within her electorate of Forest Hill

Political career

On 3 September, 2002, Victorian State Premier Steve Bracks announced that Kirstie had been nominated for preselection as a Labor candidate in the Victorian state seat of Forest Hill. In the election that followed, Kirstie won the seat of Forest Hill with a swing of more than 10%.

On February 27, 2003, twelve days after giving birth to her first child, daughter Charlotte Louise, Kirstie attended the first sitting of parliament following the 2002 election. When official proceedings commenced whilst Kirstie was still breastfeeding her newborn, the Speaker of the House ejected Charlotte (and therefore Kirstie) from the chamber as "only MPs and certain parliamentary staff are allowed in the House during sitting times". The controversy that followed was headline news [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/26/1046064105574.html] ] and led to widespread debate in the community regarding the merits of women breastfeeding in public or at workplaces > [http://www.aph.gov.au/house/house_news/magazine/ath30_Food.pdf] ] .

Unfortunately, Kirstie's political career has been dogged by her disregard for the people's wishes over the Scoresby freeway/tollway backflip. Although one could argue that it is not her disregard for the people's wishes, however, her requirement to follow the party line on a very controversial issue.

Kirstie continued to represent the people of Forest Hill and was subsequently re-elected in the 2006 state election in a very tight result.

Olympic links

* Australia at the 1992 Winter Olympics
* Australia at the 1994 Winter Olympics
* Australia at the 1998 Winter Olympics

External links

* [http://www.mtbuller.com.au/winter/default.aspx Mt Buller official website]
* [http://www.teambuller.com/home.php Team Buller official website]
* [http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/rrc Rural & Regional Committee - Parliament of Victoria]
* [http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/handbook/photo/MarshallKirstie56200.jpgPicture]

References