Bisma Asif Explained

Bisma Asif
Honorific Suffix:	MP
Office:	Member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for Sandgate
Predecessor:	Stirling Hinchliffe
Term Start:	26 October 2024
Party:	Labor
Profession:	Politician

Bisma Asif is an Australian politician who sits in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland as the member for Sandgate. Asif is the first Muslim to be elected to the Parliament of Queensland.^[1]

Political career

Asif was preselected by the Queensland Labor Party as its candidate for Sandgate at the 2024 Queensland state election to succeed the retiring incumbent Stirling Hinchliffe.^[2] She was selected amid the requirement that two male Labor MPs would have to retire at the next election to make way for women in order to meet the party's gender quota affirmative action rules.^{[3] [4]}

Prior to her election to parliament, she served as the president of Young Labor and as an advisor to Anika Wells.^{[5] [4]}

Personal life

Asif is married and lives in Sandgate. She was born in Lahore and speaks Punjabi, English, Hindi and Urdu.

Notes and References

1. News: Hinchliffe . Joe . 2024-11-02 . To Labor’s Bisma Asif, becoming Queensland’s first Muslim state MP is ‘spectacular but ordinary’ . 2024-11-03 . The Guardian . en-GB . 0261-3077.
2. News: Elks . Sarah . 11 October 2023 . Stirling Hinchliffe calls it quits after 17 years to ‘put family first’ . 27 April 2024 . The Australian.
3. News: Lynch . Lydia . Elks . Sarah . 14 April 2023 . Queensland election gender rules: Two male Labor MPs to be forced out for women candidates . 27 April 2024 . The Australian.
4. News: Elks . Sarah . Lynch . Lydia . McKenna . Michael . 6 October 2023 . ‘Cease and desist’: Andrew Laming threatens Amanda Stoker with defamation over ‘abortion’ quip . 27 April 2024 . The Australian.
5. News: McKenna . Michael . Lynch . Lydia . Elks . Sarah . 3 February 2023 . ‘LNP is being hijacked by young inner-city Liberals’: Young guns shoot for power in Queensland . 27 April 2024 . The Australian.