[2] Just two months after her defeat in the 2013 Australian Federal Election Templeman's family home in Winmalee was destroyed in the 2013 Blue Mountains bushfires.

[6] Templeman was born in Sydney, and is the daughter of an accountant father and public school music teacher mother.

The family owned newsagencies in West Lindfield and Strathfield, with Templeman regularly working the morning paper run with her father.

Templeman began her career in January 1985, during the second Hawke term, as a journalist in the Canberra Press Gallery, at Old Parliament House.

[9] In 1988, Templeman and her husband moved to New York, and then London working as radio journalist foreign correspondents for both 2UE and Austereo.

Templeman then became the News Editor for LBC, before moving back to Australia to work as the Media Relations officer for Telecom.

[14] Templeman, who was touted as a "Western Sydney soccer mum",[15] lost, with Labor suffering a 1.54-point two-party preferred swing, delivering the seat to former Member for Greenway and Liberal candidate for Macquarie, Louise Markus.

At the 2016 election, Templeman defeated the incumbent Louise Markus, winning the Division of Macquarie with a 6.7-point two-party preferred swing towards her.

[18] In 2019, Templeman defeated Liberal candidate and Hawkesbury City Councillor Sarah Richards, with the vote so close that counting continued for 16 days before a result was announced.

[25][non-primary source needed] Templeman was the subject of media criticism for opposing the planned Western Sydney Airport.

[26] The proposed airport is a topic of debate within Templeman's electorate, with many residents opposed to the project for environmental and quality of life reasons.

[33] Templeman is a supporter of the Australia–Palestine Advocacy Network, and visited Palestine in November 2017 as part of a study tour sponsored by APAN.

[35][non-primary source needed] A member of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties – the committee with principal oversight over the TPP and TPP-11 –[9] Templeman was the first Labor MP to publicly criticise the Agreement during debate, raising significant concerns about the investor-state dispute settlement provisions, skills testing of foreign workers, the waiving of labour market testing and the lack of independent modelling as to the benefits of the agreement.

[37] Templeman lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband, Ron Fuller – the former Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV News Chief of Staff.

In her inaugural speech, Templeman spoke about her daughter's battles with mental illness, and how it had been a transformative experience for her entire family.