Biography

Parliamentary service

• Elected to the House of Representatives for Indi, Victoria, 2013. Re-elected 2016. Retired prior to general elections 2019.

Committee service

• House of Representatives Select: Regional Development and Decentralisation served from 13.6.2017 to 28.6.2018
• House of Representatives Standing: Agriculture and Industry served from 4.12.2013 to 9.5.2016; Infrastructure, Transport and Cities served from 15.9.2016 to 11.4.2019
• Joint Select: Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (2018) served from 26.3.2018 to 29.11.2018
• Joint Standing: National Broadband Network served from 10.10.2016 to 11.4.2019
• Joint Statutory: Human Rights served from 14.5.2015 to 9.5.2016

Parliamentary party positions

• Independent. Served: 07.09.2013 to 11.04.2019

Personal

• Born: 29.11.1953, Albury, Australia
• Gender: Female

Qualifications and occupation before entering Federal Parliament

• DipEd (University of Melbourne).
• MAppSc (University of Western Sydney).
• BA (Monash University).
• Teacher.
• Legislative and research assistant to the Member for Indi, E Cameron, MP from 1980 to 1983.
• Rural community consultant from 1984 to 1987.
• Rural Affairs Adviser at the Department of Agriculture (Vic.) from 1987 to 1990.
• Managing Director of Catherine McGowan Consulting from 1990 to 2013.
• Lecturer at the University of Western Sydney from 1992 to 2003.

Electorate

• Name: Indi
• Location: north-eastern Victoria; the main towns include main towns include Alexandra, Beechworth, Benalla, Bright, Corryong, Eildon, Kinglake, Mansfield, Marysville, Mount Beauty, Myrtleford, Rutherglen, Tallangatta, Wangaratta, Wodonga and Yea.
• Area: 28,567 Sq km
• Electors enrolled: 103,734 (at 2.7.2016)
• Industries: tourism, forestry, wood chipping, viticulture, agriculture, timber processing and manufacturing.
• Includes:

Honours

• Awarded the Centenary Medal, 1.1.2001.
• Appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, 14.6.2004.

Publications

• Women in Albury-Wodonga: their access to work through technical and further education, NSW Department of Technical and Further Education, Sydney: 1985.
• Churchill fellowship report, Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, East Melbourne, Vic: 1990.
• Rural counselling in Victoria, Office of Rural Affairs, East Melbourne, Vic: 1992.
• Sharing the caring: palliative care for rural families, The Centre, Wangaratta, Vic: 1996.
• A review and evaluation of family farm transfer in a changing rural society, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, Barton, ACT: 1997.
• Cathy goes to Canberra: doing politics differently, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic.: 2020.