A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Jocelyn Newman served as a Senator for Tasmania in the Senate of the Australian Parliament from 1986 until 2002, when she resigned. She held the Ministerial portfolios in the Howard Government of Social Security from 1996-98; Family and Community Services from 1998-2001. She held the portfolio of Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women for two separate periods, from 1996-97 and from 1998-2001.

Sources used to compile this entry: Women in politics: voices from the Commonwealth, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 1999; [Biographical cuttings on Jocelyn Margaret Newman, politician], BIOG; National Library of Australia; Fitzherbert, Margaret, So Many Firsts: Liberal Women from Enid Lyons to the Turnbull Era, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, NSW, 2009, 286 pp; Jocelyn Newman interviewed by Norman Abjorensen [sound recording], 1996, ORAL TRC 5616; National Library of Australia; Papers of Jocelyn and Kevin Newman, 1975 - 2001, MS Acc04/204; National Library of Australia; Papers of Jocelyn Newman, 1975-2000 [manuscript], 1975 - 2000, MS Acc04/176; National Library of Australia.