The federal MPs to watch Legendary: Fiona Scott worked hard to secure her new position as the Lindsay MP. As the 44th Parliament sits for the first time on Tuesday, more than a quarter of its members will be newcomers. But who are the ones to watch? One measure of your worth as a politician is how much time your opponent puts into putting out dirt files on you. By that judgment new Reid Liberal MP Craig Laundy has value. Having spent 23 years working in his family's hotel empire, Mr Laundy is something of a Liberal golden boy after breaking the 91-year Labor hold on Reid in Sydney's west. New Liberal MP Peter Hendy, who's taken the bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro, is being feted as one to keep an eye on. Mr Hendy has a formidable policy background, having begun his career as a cadet economist with Treasury, then serving as chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and as an adviser to now Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Going places: Hotel empire scion Craig Laundy. Also in NSW is Liberal and new Lindsay MP Fiona Scott, who made waves when Prime Minister Tony Abbott said she had "sex appeal." Her work ethic during the campaign was legendary. She reportedly knocked on 25,000 doors to wrest the seat from David Bradbury. ALP secretary George Wright has backed Queensland's Jim Chalmers, NSW's Pat Conroy and Victorians Clare O'Neil and Tim Watts as new MPs to watch. Mr Chalmers, formerly Wayne Swan's chief of staff, was head of the Chifley Research Centre, Labor's official think tank. He's backed by the Australian Workers' Union in Queensland. Labor sources say he'll rise faster than the others: "They get their people into positions." Conroy was a policy adviser and deputy chief of staff to Greg Combet, and former official of the left-wing Australian Metal Workers Union. Ms O'Neil steps into Simon Crean's old seat of Hotham. Backed by the National Union of Workers faction, she was unanimously endorsed as Labor's candidate in August after Geoff Lake was disendorsed. Ms O'Neil, who joined the Labor party when she was 17, became the youngest female mayor in Australian history, aged 23. Mr Watts, like other rising Labor stars, is a former aide. He worked for now opposition defence spokesman Stephen Conroy. "People like Clare and Tim have the ability to become very, very senior," a Labor source said. In Victoria, the new MP for Corangamite, the Liberals' Sarah Henderson, was a strong performer during the campaign, which one would expect from a former ABC journalist. Ms Henderson has been billed as one of the new Liberal recruits that break the mould of "typical" candidates. Mr Abbott says she has ministerial potential.