The Australian Women's Register

Parliamentary and Local Government Career

Local

• Candidate, Kogarah Municipal Council 2004

State

• Candidate, House of Representatives, Barton, 2001
• Candidate, Georges River, 2003
• Party: Australian Democrats 2001
• Party: Independent, associated with the Save Our Suburbs Party 2003

Michele Adair grew up in Kyle Bay, a Sydney suburb, and at the time of her campaigns lived in nearby Oatley. She cared for her invalid mother and teenage children.

She was educated at PLC Sydney, and was an American Field Service exchange student to the USA in 1979-80. She studied many undergraduate courses in adult education, management (M Man (UWS) 1996), accounting and business and holds a certificate in Service Administration and Strategy from Cornell University, USA . In 2005 she expected to complete a Masters degree in Public Advocacy and Action from the Victorian University of Technology.

In 2004 she joined a large not-for-profit community organisation, having worked for the previous 17 years as an adviser in strategy and development to both public and private organisations. She taught part-time at TAFE over 10 years, and has owned and run a café and an architectural restoration business. She has also worked in the health and travel industries.

Michele has been very active in local affairs. She was involved in the campaigns to influence high-density development in Oatley, to save the Chinese Market Gardens in Arncliffe, to prevent the loss of open space in Rockdale and to insist on air filters on the M5 tunnel. In 2002, Michele Adair was the convenor of a group called Concerned Citizens against Cook’s Cove, a proposed billion dollar development which necessitated the relocation of the Kogarah Golf Club.

She has been an office holder in the P. & C. Associations of her children’s primary and secondary schools and has served on the finance and diversity committees of the YWCA.