Elected to the
Sutherland Shire Council in 2004 Gibbons served as deputy mayor from 2005 to 2006. She sought the Liberal nomination for the seat of
Menai, held by
Labor's
Alison Megarrity, at the
2007 state election. She was defeated by fellow Sutherland Shire Councillor Steve Simpson, who was unsuccessful at the general election. Gibbons was re-elected to Council as an
independent in 2008.
Menai Gibbons was endorsed as the Liberal Party candidate for Menai in 2010. Megarrity did not seek re-election and Labor endorsed Peter Scaysbrook for the seat. At the March 2011 elections, Gibbons was elected and received a swing of 27.1 points, winning 74.4 per cent of the
two-party vote. She won 61 percent of the primary vote, enough to win the seat without the need for preferences. As a result of O'Farrell government changes to electoral requirements, Gibbons was ineligible to seek re-election to Sutherland Shire Council in 2012 due to her status as a member of state Parliament.
Holsworthy For the
2015 NSW Election, the
New South Wales Electoral Commission undertook the process of redistributing electoral boundaries. In this process, Gibbons' seat of
Menai was abolished, and replaced with the redrawn seat of
Holsworthy, encompassing more of the
City of Liverpool than previously. Gibbons won the new seat with a reduced margin of 6.7%, despite a 4% swing to Labor. When first elected in 2011, Gibbons served as a Temporary Speaker in the Legislative Assembly. After the 2015 election, in addition to her Temporary Speaker position, Gibbons also was appointed the Chair of the Committee for Children and Young People and as the Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the Office of the Valuer-General. At the 2019 state election, Gibbons retained the seat of Holsworthy. On 13 October 2021, Gibbons announced her intention to resign from state parliament in order to stand for the federal seat of
Hughes. Gibbons was not selected as the Liberal candidate for Hughes in April 2022 and remained the member for Holsworthy. Gibbons lost preselection as the Liberal candidate for
Holsworthy to
Tina Ayyad, 12 to 24. At the request of
Premier Dominic Perrottet, she was announced at the last minute as the candidate for
Kiama. With a
primary vote of 11.8%, Gibbons was not elected.
Local Government Gibbons was re-elected to Sutherland Shire Council in September 2024 as the Liberal Party's lead candidate on the B Ward ticket. == Controversy ==