Catherine King (politician)


Catherine Fiona King is an Australian politician serving as Member of Parliament for Ballarat since 2001. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party and briefly served as a minister in the Gillard and Rudd Governments in 2013. She served as Shadow Minister of Heath from 2013 to 2019, and has served as Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development since 2019.

Education and early career

King was born in Melbourne, Victoria, and was educated at the Phillip Institute of Technology where she earned a Bachelor of Social Work and at the Australian National University, earning a Master of Public Policy. Before entering politics, King was a social worker, research officer and public servant. She was Assistant Director, Population Health Division, and then Aged Care Director, Injury Prevention, Population Health Division, at the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, and a Senior Manager at KPMG Consulting.

Political career

King was the only Labor candidate to win a seat at the 2001 election from the Liberal Party of Australia, and secured a 5.5-point swing, the largest swing to a Labor candidate in the poll. She was likely helped when the Liberals' initial candidate, Olympic gold medallist Russell Mark, resigned three months before the election, whereas King had 18 months to campaign. She maintained her seat at the 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016 federal elections.
King was re-elected in the 2004 federal election with a slightly reduced majority and was then appointed the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development. In mid-2005 she was then promoted to Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury.
She was re-elected for a third term at the 2007 federal election, increasing her majority from 2.2 to 8.15 points. In the 2010 federal election she increased her margin to 11.7 points.
King was appointed to serve in the Second Gillard Ministry and was sworn in by Governor-General Quentin Bryce on 14 September 2010 as the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing and the Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Transport. On 25 March 2013, King was appointed to the Ministry as the Minister for Regional Services, Local Communities and Territories and the Minister for Road Safety and sworn in by Governor-General Quentin Bryce. Following the June 2013 Labor leadership spill, King was appointed as the Minister for Regional Australia, Local Government and Territories in the Second Rudd Ministry and promoted into the Australian Cabinet.
Despite the defeat of the Rudd Government in the 2013 federal election King retained her seat with a margin of 4.9 points. Following the election of Bill Shorten as Labor Leader, King was appointed to shadow cabinet as Labor Health spokesperson. King was re-elected for a sixth time in the July 2016 Federal Election increasing her margin to 7.3 points. She retained her position as Shadow Minister for Health.