Michelle Renuka Ananda-Rajah (Tamil: மிசேல் ஆனந்தராஜா; born 10 December 1972) is a Tamil Australian member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

for the

Division of Higgins The Division of Higgins is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria for the Australian House of Representatives. The division covers in Melbourne's inner south-eastern suburbs. The main suburbs include , , , , , , , , and ; along with part ...

elected in the

2022 Australian federal election The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth conse ...

. Prior to entering politics, she was a clinician-scientist, and infections diseases physician.

Early life

Ananda-Rajah was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

parents who had fled from Sri Lanka in the early 1970s prior to the Sri Lankan Civil War. She lived in Zambia for 11 years until she moved to Australia as a child. Ananda-Rajah became an Australian citizen in 1996. She renounced her British citizenship in 2021. Ananda-Rajah achieved her bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery (MBBS) in 1997 and her

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in 2014 from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

Career

Ananda-Rajah worked as a clinician-researcher and physician in infectious diseases and general medicine at Alfred Health. She is a graduate of USyd with honours and underwent speciality training in Victoria. In 2019, she was awarded a prestigious TRIP (Translating Research Into Practice) fellowship by the Medical Research Future Fund and appointed to JAMA Network Open as a statistical and methods reviewer. Michelle is the co-founder of Healthcare workers Australia, a grass roots advocacy group which has campaigned since August 2020 for improved respiratory protection.

Politics

Ananda-Rajah was preselected as the Labor candidate for Higgins in July 2021, ahead of the

. She trailed

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

incumbent Katie Allen for most of the night. However, on the seventh count, a

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

candidate's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Ananda-Rajah. This gave Ananda-Rajah a 2.4% swing in primary vote and a 4.6% swing in two party preferred vote, to win the seat with a two party preferred vote of 52%, or a little under 4,000 votes. By winning, Ananda-Rajah became the first Labor – member for Higgins in the seat's 73-year history.

References

1972 births Living people Medical doctors from Melbourne Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Higgins Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia University of Sydney alumni University of Melbourne alumni Australian people of Tamil descent British expatriates in Zambia Women members of the Australian House of Representatives {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub