[1] Lowe's previous MP was Paul Zammit, a Liberal who turned Independent in protest over the Howard Government's policies on aircraft noise.

Murphy was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Health Stephen Smith from December 2001 to February 2003 and then Parliamentary Secretary to federal Labor leaders Simon Crean, Mark Latham, Kim Beazley and Kevin Rudd from February 2003 to December 2007.

He is a member of the NSW Right and holds socially conservative views on most moral issues, such as abortion and stem-cell research.

Murphy campaigned against the Howard Government's removal of cross-media ownership restrictions and has been a long-standing critic of media proprietors, such as Rupert Murdoch and the late Kerry Packer.

In an interview on 27 August 2011, Murphy claimed that his electorate he had a large number of Christian and Islamic voters and that granting permission to homosexuals and lesbians to marry was "a step too far".