Catherine King (politician)

Catherine Fiona King (born 2 June 1966), is an Australian politician, and was the Minister for Regional Australia, Local Government and Territories from July to September 2013. She is a member of the Australian House of Representatives since November 2001, representing the Division of Ballarat, Victoria for the Australian Labor Party.

Education and early career

King was born in Melbourne, Victoria, and was educated at the Phillip Institute of Technology (now Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) where she earned a Bachelor of Social Work and 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% swing,^[1] the largest swing to a Labor candidate in the poll. She was likely helped when the Liberals' initial candidate, Olympic gold medalist Russell Mark, abruptly resigned, leaving King to campaign more or less uncontested for 18 months.^[2] She maintained her seat at the 2004, 2007 and 2010 elections.

King was re-elected in the 2004 federal election with a slightly reduced majority^[3] 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 percentage points.^[4] In the 2010 federal election she increased her margin to 11.7%.^[5][6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8]

See also

• Australian federal election, 2013
• Australian federal election, 2010
• Second Gillard Ministry
• Second Rudd Ministry
• Pre-election pendulum for the next Australian federal election

References

External links

• Official website

• Search or browse Hansard for Catherine King (politician) at OpenAustralia.org
• Official Australian Parliament website for Catherine King
• Official Facebook page of Catherine King
• Official Twitter page of Catherine King
• Official ALP webpage for Catherine King

v t e Second Rudd Cabinet Prime Minister: Kevin Rudd Anthony Albanese Chris Bowen Tony Burke Mark Butler Bob Carr Kim Carr Jacinta Collins Julie Collins Mark Dreyfus Joel Fitzgibbon Gary Gray Catherine King Jenny Macklin Richard Marles Brendan O'Connor Tanya Plibersek Bill Shorten Stephen Smith Penny Wong

v t e Gillard Cabinet Prime Minister: Julia Gillard Anthony Albanese Chris Bowen Tony Burke Mark Butler Bob Carr Kim Carr Jason Clare Greg Combet Stephen Conroy Simon Crean Mark Dreyfus Craig Emerson Chris Evans John Faulkner Martin Ferguson Peter Garrett Gary Gray Joe Ludwig Jenny Macklin Robert McClelland Brendan O'Connor Tanya Plibersek Nicola Roxon Kevin Rudd Bill Shorten Stephen Smith Wayne Swan Lindsay Tanner Penny Wong