Representative Madeleine King Contact information

Madeleine Mary Harvie King is an Australian politician, currently serving as the Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia in the Albanese government. She was born on March 31, 1973, in Calista, Western Australia, to Diana Eve Pizer and John Harvie Morris. King is the youngest of five children, and her father served in the Royal Navy before moving to Australia to work at the Kwinana Oil Refinery. Her mother owned a drapery shop in Rockingham.

King grew up in Shoalwater and attended Safety Bay Primary School, Rockingham Beach Primary School, and Safety Bay Senior High School. She initially pursued an arts degree at the University of Western Australia (UWA) but later moved to Melbourne to study aerospace engineering at RMIT University. She returned to Perth after a year and completed a Bachelor of Laws at UWA.

King worked as a commercial lawyer in private practice from 1997 to 2005, including a period in England after her marriage. She later joined UWA’s legal department as a research contracts lawyer, and then worked as chief of staff to the vice-chancellor Alan Robson and principal advisor of strategic projects. She oversaw the university’s centenary celebrations in 2013. Before entering politics, King was the chief operating officer of the Perth USAsia Centre, a think tank based at UWA.

King’s political career began in 2011 when she became a ministerial adviser to federal Labor MP Gary Gray. She also advised WA federal government ministers Stephen Smith and Chris Evans during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011 in Perth. In 2016, King won ALP preselection unopposed for the Division of Brand, following Gray’s retirement. She retained the seat for the ALP at the 2016 federal election and was given a position on the opposition frontbench in June 2018, replacing Tim Hammond. King was given the consumer affairs portfolio and also made an assistant minister in the small business and resources portfolios. After the 2019 election, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Trade and Shadow Minister for Resources.

In March 2021, King stated that the ALP would oppose a moratorium on new coal mines, arguing that as long as international markets want to buy Australian coal, which is high quality, then they will be able to. After the ALP’s victory at the 2022 election, King was appointed to cabinet as Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia in the Albanese government.

King is married to Jamie King and has represented Western Australia in Masters hockey. Her brother, John Morris, is an actor who has appeared on Home & Away and Neighbours.