Cootamundra MP Katrina Hodgkinson has announced her retirement from State politics.
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In a statement on Monday afternoon Ms Hodgkinson said she’d “made the very difficult decision to retire” after 18 and a half years of representing the Burrinjuck and Cootamundra electorates.
She said her decision was not in response to any single electorate issue but came down to “length of service.”
“It’s time to move on to something new”, she said.
Ms Hodgkinson said it had been an absolute privilege to have served constituents from right across Southern NSW in the NSW Legislative Assembly, after several electoral boundary redistributions; from the Wingecarribee, Goulburn, Boorowa and Crookwell, through to Gundagai, Tumut and Batlow, to Narrandera, West Wyalong, Temora, Grenfell, Young, Harden and Cowra, and “everywhere in between,” including her original hometown of Yass.
During her career in State Parliament, she served four years in the NSW Cabinet as the Minister for Small Business, and as the first female Minister for Primary Industries (including Lands and Water).
Ms Hodgkinson also served as Assistant Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Parliamentary Secretary for Southern NSW and committee chairman, and eight years in the Shadow Cabinet.
“I will forever be grateful for the support afforded to me by constituents and grass-roots members of The Nationals since first running for office in 1996,” she said.
Ms Hodgkinson won the seat of Burrinjuck in 1999 - a seat that had never previously been held by The Nationals, and did so again in 2003, 2007 and 2011, and the newly formed seat of Cootamundra at the 2015 state election with around a 20 per cent majority.
She thanked her husband Jack for his support throughout nearly two decades of public life – and her children, Georgia and Hamilton, who she said had only ever known her as an “MP Mum”.
Ms Hodgkinson said she looked forward to spending more time with her family and engaging in opportunities that might arise in the corporate sector.