Michelle Anne Rowland (born 16 November 1971) is an Australian politician. She is a 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 t ...

(ALP) and has represented the

Division of Greenway The Division of Greenway is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. Greenway includes the Blacktown City Council in Sydney's west and northwestern suburbs. Greenway is a relatively diverse electorate, with a lar ...

in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

since 2010. She was a member of the shadow ministry from 2013 to 2022, and was elected President of the

Australian Labor Party (NSW Branch) The Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch), also known as NSW Labor, is the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party. The parliamentary leader is elected from and by the members of the party caucus, comprising all party mem ...

in October 2021. She is now the Minister for Communications in the government of Anthony Albanese following the ALP's victory 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 cons ...

Early years and background

Rowland was born in

Blacktown Blacktown is a suburb in the City of Blacktown, in Greater Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Blacktown is located west of the Sydney central business district. It is one of the most multicultural places within Great ...

in Sydney. Her mother is Fijian, but she does not hold

dual citizenship Multiple/dual citizenship (or multiple/dual nationality) is a legal status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a national or citizen of more than one country under the laws of those countries. Conceptually, citizenship is focused on ...

as the Fijian constitution at the time did not allow for citizenship to pass through the maternal line. She was raised in Seven Hills. She was educated at

Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta , motto_translation = Under Your Protection , established = , type = Independent single-sex secondary day school , gender = Girls , denomination = Roman Catholicism , ...

and 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 ...

. Rowland was a senior telecommunications lawyer with law firm Gilbert + Tobin in Sydney. She lives in the electorate at Glenwood. Rowland was a Director of the Western Sydney Area Health Service from 2000 to 2004 and is a former local

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

(Ward 2, 2004–2008) and deputy mayor of

(2007–2008).

Federal politics

At the

2010 Australian federal election The 2010 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 21 August 2010 to elect members of the 43rd Parliament of Australia. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard won a second term against the Op ...

, Rowland won the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of ...

seat of Greenway for Labor, following the 2009 electoral distribution which had made Greenway notionally Labor, on a margin of 5.7 points. The seat was previously held by Liberal Louise Markus, who contested the more marginal seat of

Macquarie Macquarie may refer to: People * Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of the British colony of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. * Elizabeth Macquarie Campbell, Lachlan Macquarie's second wife Locations * Division of Macquarie, an electoral district in th ...

at the 2010 federal election. Rowland was re-elected to the seat at the 2013 federal election with an increased majority, and was also subsequently appointed to the Labor opposition's frontbench as Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications as well as Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism. In October 2015, Rowland was elevated to Shadow Minister for Small Business as well as continuing as Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism. In the lead-up to the 2013 federal election, campaign opinion polls had shown that she would lose Greenway. However, her subsequent victory was helped during the campaign by the high profile blunder of the Liberal Party candidate Jaymes Diaz, when he could not state clearly the Coalition's policy on asylum seekers.

Shadow minister

Following the ALP's defeat at the 2013 election, Rowland was appointed to

Bill Shorten William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician currently serving as Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. He previously served as leader of the opposition ...

's Shadow Ministry. Rowland has held the portfolios of Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications (2013–2015), Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism (2013–2016), Shadow Minister for Small Business (2015–2016), and Shadow Minister for Communications (2016–2019). She was elevated to the shadow Cabinet in 2016, and maintained her place following

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...

's election as party leader in 2019. Rowland was elected President of the

at the NSW State Conference on 9 October 2021.

Political positions

Rowland is a member of

Labor Right The Labor Right, also known as Modern Labor, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more economically conservative and, in some cases, more socially conservative. The Labor ...

. In 2012, Rowland was one of 98 MPs that voted against a bill for

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

, but supported its introduction from 2016. Despite the 2017 Australian Marriage Law postal survey returning a 53.6% no vote for her electorate of Greenway, Rowland voted for the

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pla ...

that enacted

same-sex marriage in Australia Same-sex marriage in Australia has been legal since 9 December 2017. Legislation to allow same-sex marriage, the '' Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017'', passed the Australian Parliament on 7 December 2017 and rece ...

. This was in line with her longstanding position and the national success of the Yes vote, with Rowland declaring: "Personally, a conversation I had with a mother in Seven Hills provided me with an important perspective. Her son is on active service in the Australian navy and he wants to marry his partner. This man is putting his life on the line in service to Australia. Who am I, and who is any person, to say that this man should not be entitled to marry the person he loves?". In 2021, Rowland was the most vocal critic inside the Labor caucus of its capital gains tax, negative gearing, and income tax policies, seeing all three dropped.

References

External links

Michelle Rowland MP

Parliament of Australia – Ms Michelle Rowland MP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowland, Michelle 1971 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Greenway Women members of the Australian House of Representatives 20th-century Australian lawyers Australian solicitors Australian women lawyers Sydney Law School alumni Australian people of Fijian descent Lawyers from Sydney Politicians from Sydney 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Australian Labor Party councillors Deputy mayors of places in Australia 21st-century women lawyers Albanese Government