From 1998, Allen was employed as a paediatric allergist and gastroenterologist at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. She has held professorial rank at the University of Melbourne and University of Manchester, and in 2013 was appointed director of the Centre of Food and Allergy Research at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Allen was the principal investigator for the MCRI's "HealthNuts" study, which is "the largest single-centre population based study of food allergy in children ever mounted". The study tracks 5,300 children who were diagnosed with food allergies as infants. Outside of her research, Allen has served as chair of the Melbourne Girls Grammar school council and as a director of Cabrini Health, a non-profit Catholic healthcare service. In 2015 Allen was elected an Inaugural Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
Politics
Allen was the Liberal candidate in Prahran at the 2018 Victorian state election, losing to the incumbent Greens MP Sam Hibbins. In February 2019, she won preselection for the Division of Higgins, replacing the retiring MP Kelly O'Dwyer. She retained the seat for the Liberals at the 2019 federal election despite suffering a six percent swing–enough to drop the Liberal majority to 53 percent, making Higgins a marginal seatfor the first time. Notably, she was the first Liberal candidate in Higgins to come up short of a majority on the first count, like several blue ribbon Liberal seats in inner cities around Australia. Allen was sworn in as the Member for Higgins at the Opening of the 46th Parliament in Canberra, making her First Speech on 29th July 2019, where she spoke about ensuring a healthy and educated start to life for the next generation, an environmentally and economically sustainable future for all, lower taxes and a strong economy. Allen also noted familial ties to Margaret Bondfield – a British suffragette and the UK’s first woman cabinet minister as Minister for Labour. Allen currently sits on the Parliamentary Standing Committees for Trade and Investment; the National Broadband Network; the Parliamentary Library; Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources and Communications and the Arts, and is a member of the National Redress Scheme Implementation Committee and Working Group on Indigenous Recognition. Allen visited PNG in August 2019 as part of a Parliamentary tour hosted by the Save the Children and Gates Foundation in the context of the Morrison Government Pacific Step. Allen is also co convenor of the Parliamentary Friends of UNICEF, Parliamentary Friends of Child and Adolescent Health and Parliamentary Friends of Hemochromatosis, Parliamentary Friends of Young People and Parliamentary Friends of Cancer Care and Cure.
As a former medical professional, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Allen was active in educating the community on proper hygiene, physical distancing and mask etiquette. Allen also serves on the National COVID-19 Health and Research Advisory Committee, working to provide advice on Australia’s health response to the COVID-19 pandemic to the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer.
Policy interests
Beyond health, Allen has played an active role in advocating for strong action on climate change and how to achieve a carbon-neutral future. Allen has been vocal on the need for education reform to support high achievers, support for rural GPs, Labor’s Medevac law, the prospect of tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and tertiary education reform.
