Reynolds was born in Perth on 16 May 1965. She is the daughter of Laith and Jan Reynolds and has two brothers; she has said she was raised with "strong Christian values". Her grandfather Alfred Reynolds served in the Parliament of Western Australia as a member of the Australian Labor Party. Her maternal grandparents were English immigrants. Reynolds grew up in the suburb of Gooseberry Hill and attended St Brigid's College. During her childhood she lived in Indonesia for a period where her father was a manager for Philips. The family learned to speak Indonesian and her mother took a degree in Indonesian studies. Reynolds holds the degree of Bachelor of Commerce from Curtin University and also holds graduate certificates in training and development, defence management and strategic studies.
Military career
Reynolds enlisted in the Australian Army Reserve in 1984, aged 19. She served variously as an officer cadet, regional logistics officer, training development officer, military instructor at the Army Command and Staff College, commanding officer of the 5th Combat Service Support Battalion, director of the Active Standby Staff Group, project director at the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, strategy development director of Raytheon Australia, director of the Accountability Model Implementation Project, and director of the Army Strategic Reform Program. She was adjutant general of the Army Reserve from 2012 to 2013. She was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in the 2011 Australia Day Honours for "outstanding achievement as the Director of Army Strategic Reform Program coordination". On attaining the rank of brigadier in 2012, Reynolds became the first woman in the Australian Army Reserve to be promoted to a star rank.
Early political involvement
Reynolds joined the Liberal Party in 1987. Prior to her election to parliament, she held various positions in the party's organisational wing. She was a campaign manager for the divisions of Pearce and Hasluck and served as a deputy federal director from 2006 to 2008. She also worked as an electorate officer and ministerial advisor, notably as chief of staff and senior adviser to justice minister Chris Ellison from 2001 to 2003.
Senate (2014–present)
At the 2013 federal election, Reynolds was elected to the Senate from third position on the Liberal Party's ticket in Western Australia. However, her position was placed in doubt when the High Court ordered a fresh half-Senate election after determining that there were missing ballot papers. Reynolds was successful in the re-run and her Senate term commenced on 1 July 2014. She was subsequently re-elected to the Senate at the 2016 and 2019 federal elections, leading the Liberal Party's ticket in the latter. She chaired a number of Senate committees prior to her elevation to the ministry in 2018. During the 2018 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spills, Reynolds reportedly supported the incumbent prime ministerMalcolm Turnbull in the first ballot on 21 August before switching her support to Scott Morrison in the second ballot on 24 August. On 23 August, she told the Senate that she was "distressed and disturbed" by the behaviour of some Liberal MPs during the leadership conflict, which had "no place in my party or this chamber".
Government minister
In August 2018, Reynolds was promoted to Assistant Minister for Home Affairs in the First Morrison Ministry, serving under Peter Dutton. She was elevated to Cabinet in March 2019 as Minister for Defence Industry, as part of a planned transition to the role of Minister for Defence following Christopher Pyne's decision to retire at the 2019 federal election. She was also appointed to the new role of Minister for Emergency Management and North Queensland Recovery, having previously held responsibility for disaster recovery in her position as assistant home affairs minister. In early 2019 she was a strong opponent of the medevac bill that expanded the medical evacuation of asylum seekers from offshore processing facilities to Australia. In a speech to the Senate, she said that the bill would encourage unauthorised arrivals by boat and that as a result the military would "have to recover the bloated corpses of babies and women mauled by sharks". Reynolds was elevated to Minister for Defence in May 2019, following the Coalition's victory at the 2019 federal election. She is the second woman to hold the position, after Marise Payne. Her appointment was cautiously welcomed by Neil James, the president of the Australian Defence Association, who noted her lack of ministerial experience. In May 2020, Reynolds was accused of misleading the Senate by Mark Sullivan, the chair of the Defence Honours and Awards Appeal Tribunal, over her rejection of a posthumous Victoria Cross for Teddy Sheean.
