Kelly Megan O'Dwyer (born 31 March 1977) is a former Australian politician. She served in the

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

from 2009 to 2019, representing the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

, and held senior ministerial office from 2015 to 2019. O'Dwyer was a solicitor, political adviser, and

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(NAB) executive before entering politics. She was elected to parliament at the 2009 Higgins by-election, aged 31, replacing

Peter Costello Peter Howard Costello (born 14 August 1957) is an Australian businessman, lawyer and former politician who served as the treasurer of Australia in Howard government, government of John Howard from 1996 to 2007. He is the longest-serving trea ...

. In 2014, she was made a parliamentary secretary in the

Abbott government The Abbott government was the federal executive government of Australia led by the 28th Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The government was made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition. The Leader of The Nationals, Warren Truss, served ...

. O'Dwyer was promoted to cabinet when

Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party an ...

became prime minister in 2015. She served as Minister for Small Business (2015–2016), Assistant Treasurer (2015–2016), Minister for Revenue and Financial Services (2016–2018), and Minister for Women (2017–2019). In 2017, she became the first Australian cabinet minister to give birth while in office. O'Dwyer ended her political career as Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations in the

Morrison government The Morrison government was the Australian Government, federal executive government of Australia, led by Prime Minister of Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison of the Liberal Party of Australia, between 2018 and 2022. The Morrison governmen ...

, retiring prior to the 2019 federal election.

Early career

O'Dwyer was born in Box Hill and was educated at Presbyterian Ladies' College and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

.Lawyers Weekly (2009)
Former Freehills lawyer wins pre-selection
. After working as a solicitor for

Freehills Freehills was a commercial law firm operating in the Asia Pacific region. It was one of the Big Six Australian law firms. In 2012 it merged with Herbert Smith to become Herbert Smith Freehills. History The firm's predecessors include the prac ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, O'Dwyer spent four years as a senior advisor to

, then the member for the federal division of Higgins and the Federal Treasurer, later becoming an executive at the

Political career

Entry to federal politics

Costello decided in 2009 not to seek another term of office at the next federal election. On 17 September 2009, O'Dwyer was pre-selected to stand as the Liberal Party candidate for Higgins at the next election. Peter Costello then announced his resignation from Parliament in October 2009. He stated that he chose to retire ahead of the next federal election as a contribution to renewal of the Liberal Party and that O'Dwyer would contribute to this process. A by-election was held on 5 December 2009. O'Dwyer was considered a "shoo-in", especially since the Labor Party did not contest the seat. In winning preselection, O'Dwyer became the first woman to win Liberal Party preselection for a

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing h ...

in metropolitan Melbourne. During the preselection process federal Liberal politicians

Sophie Mirabella Sophie Mirabella (née Panopoulos; born 27 October 1968) is an Australian lawyer and former politician who currently serves as a Commissioner on the Fair Work Commission since 24 May 2021. She was previously a Liberal Party member of the Austra ...

, Fran Bailey and

Helen Coonan Helen Lloyd Coonan (born 29 October 1947) is a former Australian politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1996 to 2011, representing the Liberal Party. She was a minister in the Howard government, serving as Minister for Revenue an ...

claimed that there had been a sexist campaign against O'Dwyer's candidacy, with some preselectors being told that a "leadership seat" such as Higgins was unsuited to a woman and that being elected to a federal seat might endanger her marriage.

2016 federal election

At the 2016 federal election, O'Dwyer was re-elected with a two-candidate preferred vote of 57.99% (a swing against her of 2%) and a 52.5% primary vote (a swing against her of 2.4%). A Greens-funded Lonergan seat-level opinion poll conducted from a sample of 1,100 voters in Higgins took place a month out from the 2016 election on 3−4 June. It suggested the Liberal primary vote may have decreased substantially. However, the poll proved inaccurate, with O'Dwyer winning comfortably.

Minister

O'Dwyer had been serving as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer in the

from December 2014, until the

leadership spill In Australian politics, a leadership spill (or simply a spill) is a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for contest. A spill may involve all or some of the leadership positions (leader and deputy leader in ...

of the Liberal Party occurred in September 2015. Malcolm Turnbull won the spill and was sworn in as Prime Minister on 15 September 2015. Turnbull introduced an overhaul of the cabinet, which saw O'Dwyer appointed to Cabinet as Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer in the First Turnbull Ministry. Following the re-election of the

Turnbull government The Turnbull government was the federal executive government of Australia led by the 29th prime minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, from 2015 to 2018. It succeeded the Abbott government, which brought the Coalition to power at the 2013 Au ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, the O'Dwyer was appointed as the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, a name change. O'Dwyer was assigned two additional responsibilities, as the Minister for Women and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service, in December 2017. Following the commencement of the Morrison government, O'Dwyer became the Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations, in addition to her ongoing role as Minister for Women. In 2018, O'Dwyer was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. On 19 January 2019, O'Dwyer announced that she would not be contesting the upcoming election as her two children would be approaching primary school age and she wanted to give her and her husband the best opportunity for a third child.

Personal life

She is married to Jon Mant, a business executive, and has two sisters and one brother. Her daughter was born in 2015. In 2017, O'Dwyer gave birth to her second child, making her the first Cabinet Minister to give birth while in office. In April 2022, O'Dwyer joined

Barrenjoey Capital Partners Barrenjoey Capital Partners (Barrenjoey) is an Australian investment banking firm that is headquartered in Sydney with additional offices in Melbourne, Perth, Abu Dhabi, and Hong Kong. History In May 2020, former UBS Australia chairman Guy Fowl ...

as a non-executive director.

References

External links

* , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Odwyer, Kelly 1977 births Abbott government Australian businesspeople Australian women lawyers Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Living people Melbourne Law School alumni Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Higgins Members of the Cabinet of Australia People educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne Politicians from Melbourne Turnbull government Women members of the Australian House of Representatives 21st-century Australian women politicians Women government ministers of Australia Morrison government 20th-century Australian lawyers Women's ministers of Australia Australian MPs 2007–2010 Australian MPs 2010–2013 Australian MPs 2013–2016 Australian MPs 2016–2019