Melissa McIntosh

Biography

Melissa Iris McIntosh, also known as Melissa Grah-McIntosh, is an Australian politician and a member of the Liberal Party. Born on August 24, 1977, in Penrith, New South Wales, her father, Edmund Grah, immigrated to Australia from Graz, Austria, in the late 1950s. McIntosh holds a degree in Bachelor of Communications, majoring in journalism, public relations, and video production from the University of Western Sydney.

After graduating from university, McIntosh began her career in politics as an aide to arts and sports minister Jackie Kelly. She also worked in the office of Prime Minister John Howard. From 2011 to 2015, McIntosh worked at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney as head of partnerships and director of events. Later, she served as the chief of staff to Assistant Treasurer Alex Hawke until 2016, when she joined Wentworth Community Housing as executive manager of communications.

Prior to her election to parliament, McIntosh was a vice-president of the Liberal Party of Australia (New South Wales Division) and a member of the state executive. She was an unsuccessful candidate for the Fourth Ward of the Blue Mountains City Council in 2016. McIntosh is a member of the centre-right faction of the Liberal Party.

In November 2018, McIntosh won Liberal preselection for the Division of Lindsay and was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2019 federal election. She defeated Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate Diane Beamer, who had defeated the incumbent ALP member Emma Husar for preselection.

McIntosh is married to Stuart McIntosh, a former Olympic canoeist, and they have three children together. They met at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. In her personal life, she has sometimes used the name “Melissa Grah-McIntosh”.