Sophie Scamps

Biography

Sophie Anna Rebecca Scamps is an Australian independent politician, general practitioner, and former athlete. Scamps was born on 15 March 1971, in Turramurra, New South Wales, and grew up in the same area. She attended Abbotsleigh school, where she excelled in athletics, and later qualified for the 1992 Summer Olympics as a middle-distance runner.

Scamps earned her medical degree from the University of Sydney in 1995, before obtaining a Master of Public Health from the University of New South Wales and a Master of Science with honors from the University of Oxford. Following her studies, Scamps became a general practitioner and was one of the founders of the Our Blue Dot environmental movement, which campaigns for waste reduction and carbon neutrality.

In 2020, Scamps and four other like-minded locals created the Voices of Mackellar group, a non-partisan community organization aimed at engaging residents in the democratic process. Backed by Climate 200 and a large grassroots local campaign, Scamps announced her candidacy as an independent for the 2022 Australian federal election. Her campaign focused on the issues of climate, integrity, and gender diversity, with Scamps highlighting her disappointment at the incumbent Jason Falinski’s omission of climate change in his survey to Mackellar residents.

Scamps won the election and was elected as the Member for Mackellar in the Australian House of Representatives. She has been featured in various Australian media outlets, including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Guardian, and Women’s Agenda, where she has advocated for action on climate change. Scamps has been labelled as a part of the so-called ’teal wave’, a movement of moderate independent candidates whose focus on climate change has challenged traditionally Coalition safe seats.

Scamps currently lives in Avalon on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, with her husband Adam Magro and their three children. She has also welcomed a family of Ukrainian refugees into her home for a time. Scamps’ surname is Belgian and is pronounced as ‘Scomps’.

Aside from her political career, Scamps was a successful middle-distance runner, having competed internationally for Australia. She was a member of the gold medal-winning 4x400m women’s relay team at the World Junior Championships in 1990, where they set a new under 20 Australian record that still stands. Scamps’ personal bests include 400m in 52.67 seconds in Sydney, Australia (1991), 800m in 2:02:2 in Canberra, and 4x400m relay in 3:30:38 at the Deveti Septemvri Stadium, Plodiv (1990).