 andrea coote (born 18 july 1951) was an australian politician. she has been a liberal member of the victorian legislative council since september 1999, representing monash province until the 2006 election and the southern metropolitan region since. coote was born in melbourne, and studied at fintona girls' school and the university of melbourne. before being elected to parliament, she worked in a number of business and executive positions, which included stints as executive director of the state library foundation (1994â1996) and director of development at geelong grammar school (1996â1998). in the early 1990s, she also worked as a staff officer to member of the legislative assembly michael john, and later as a ministerial adviser. coote succeeded in winning liberal pre-selection for the safe liberal-held seat of monash province in the leadup to the 1999 election, and was ultimately elected. jeff kennett's liberal government, however, had suffered a surprise defeat, so coote found herself in opposition. despite this, due to the way the legislative council is elected, the liberal party still had control of the upper house, giving them significant power to reject legislation introduced by the new labor government. in her first term in office, coote was a member of the legislative council printing committee, and in 2000, also gained a seat on the economic development committee. during her first term, coote also became notable for her support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. coote became one of a small group of liberal legislative councillors - along with andrew olexander (since expelled from the parliamentary liberal party following a drink-driving incident), and before they lost their seats at the 2002 election, peter katsambanis and leonie burke - that lobbied for gay-friendly changes in party policy. along with these three, coote regularly met with representatives from the lgbt communities in melbourne.{{cite web| first= peter |l
1951_births Australian_women_in_politics Living_people Members_of_the_Victorian_Legislative_Council Victoria_(Australia)_Liberal_politicians