Jillian Skinner was born in Melbourne in 1944, the daughter of Robert and Lois Coutts. She served her cadetship in journalism on the Melbourne Herald. She worked as a journalist for News Limited and Radio Hong Kong from 1962-1973, returning to live in Sydney in 1979. From 1984 to 1988 she ran Jillian Skinner and Associates, doing editorial writing, research, policy development and strategic planning.

She is married to Christopher Skinner, and they have three children. When her children were small, she became active in P. & C. affairs in North Sydney and was a founding member of the North Sydney Occasional Childcare.

From 1988 to 1994 she was Director of the New South Wales Office of Youth Affairs.
She has held office in the Liberal Party at all levels, local, electorate and State.
Elected to the Legislative Assembly at a by-election in 1994, following the resignation of Phillip Smiles, she was appointed to the Shadow Ministry the following year, after the defeat of the Fahey government. In 2005 she has held first, the shadow ministry of Education and then Health.

Sources used to compile this entry: http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/members.nsf (accessed 23 September 2004); Who's Who in Australia 2003; http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/23991/20020827/www.nsw.liberal.org.au/candidates (accessed 1 April 2005); Ephemera on NSW State and local elections, Box 12, Mitchell Library collection, State Library of NSW, Sydney.