Representative Catherine King Contact information

Catherine Fiona King is an Australian politician and current Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, serving since 2022. She was born in Melbourne on 2 June 1966, and completed her secondary education at Emmaus College. After obtaining a Bachelor of Social Work at the Phillip Institute of Technology, she pursued a Master of Public Policy at the Australian National University, and later a Bachelor of Laws at Deakin University, graduating in 2018. She was admitted as a lawyer in Victoria in 2021.

Before entering politics, King worked as a social worker at Ballarat Children’s Homes and Family Services from 1988 to 1992. She received recognition for her work when she was named Victorian Young Achiever of the Year in community services in 1991. In the same year, she spent six months working in Birmingham, England, which influenced her decision to pursue a political career. She then worked for the Australian Public Service, holding roles such as an industry policy officer for the Australia New Zealand Food Authority, and later as a senior officer in the Department of Health and Aged Care. During her time in the public service, she lived in Canberra and later moved back to Victoria to join the private sector as a senior manager in KPMG’s consulting division.

King joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in 1993 and became president of the party’s Port Melbourne branch from 1998 to 1999. In 2001, she was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ballarat, defeating the Liberal Party’s candidate with a 5.5-point swing. She was re-elected in 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016 federal elections, increasing her margin over time. She was appointed to serve in the Second Gillard Ministry in 2010 as the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing and the Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Transport. She was later appointed as the Minister for Regional Services, Local Communities and Territories and the Minister for Road Safety in the Gillard and Rudd governments in 2013.

After the defeat of the second Rudd government in the 2013 federal election, King became the Shadow Minister of Health in Bill Shorten’s shadow cabinet. She was re-elected for a sixth time in the July 2016 federal election and retained her position as Shadow Minister for Health. Following the 2019 federal election, she was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development in Anthony Albanese’s shadow ministry.

In the 2022 federal election, King was re-elected as the MP for Ballarat and was subsequently appointed as the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government in the Albanese ministry. Throughout her political career, King has been a member of the Labor Left faction of the ALP.