Katrina Jane Allen (born 24 February 1966)[1] is an Australian politician and former medical researcher who was a member of the House of Representatives from 2019 until 2022. She is a member of the Liberal Party and represented the Division of Higgins in Victoria.[2]
Katie Allen | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Australian Parliament for Higgins | |
| In office 18 May 2019 – 21 May 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Kelly O'Dwyer |
| Succeeded by | Michelle Ananda-Rajah |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Katrina Jane Stephens 24 February 1966 Albury, New South Wales, Australia |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse | Malcolm Allen |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | Monash University University of Melbourne |
| Occupation | Medical researcher |
| Signature |  |
Early life
editAllen grew up in country New South Wales and went to boarding school at Melbourne Girls Grammar.[2]
Her father was born on Ocean Island in the British colony of Gilbert and Ellice Islands (present-day Kiribati).[1] She held British citizenship by descent until March 2019 when she renounced it to run for parliament.[1]
Her mother was secretary of the Albury branch of the Liberal party.[3] Her mother's side of the family are one of the most prominent winemaking families in Australia, with six generations making wine in Rutherglen.[4] Allen's uncle is Mick Morris.[5]
Allen studied medicine at Monash University, also undertaking research at the University of Cambridge, and subsequently trained as a doctor at the Alfred Hospital.[6][1] She completed a Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne in 2002.[1] Her doctoral thesis, titled "Liver cell transplantation using a mouse model of Wilson's disease", was on the use of liver cell transplantation to treat Wilson's disease.[7][8]
Allen was one of eleven MPs in the 46th Parliament of Australia to hold a PhD, the others being Jim Chalmers, Fiona Martin, Anne Aly, Andrew Leigh, Daniel Mulino, Jess Walsh, Adam Bandt, Mehreen Faruqi, Anne Webster and Helen Haines.[9]
Career
editFrom 1998, Allen was employed as a paediatric allergist and gastroenterologist at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.[1] After completing a PhD at the University of Melbourne in the development of liver cell transplantation as an alternative to whole organ transplantation,[10] Dr Allen undertook Australia’s first liver cell transplantation in 2004, which was unsuccessful.[11][12] She subsequently provided scientific evidence that liver cell transplantation was not yet ready for long-term clinical application.[13] She has held professorial rank at the University of Melbourne and University of Manchester, and in 2013 was appointed director of the Centre of Food and Allergy Research at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI).[14] Allen was the principal investigator for the MCRI's "HealthNuts" study, which is "the largest single-centre population based study of food allergy in children ever mounted". The study tracks 5,300 children who were diagnosed with food allergies as infants.[15]
Allen has advocated for a wide range of preventive health care initiatives including better food labelling to help keep people with food allergies safe,[16] dubbing Melbourne as “unfortunately the food allergy capital of the world[17]”. Allen also led the national standardisation of Infant Feeding Guidelines in Australia.[18]
In 2016, Allen was involved in research undertaken at MCRI which described a link between Asian migration to Australia and increased risk of food allergy.[19] In 2017 she was featured on SBS Insight when she undertook Australia’s first paediatric Faecal Microbial Transplant.[20]
Outside of her research, Allen has served as chair of the Melbourne Girls Grammar school council and as a director of Cabrini Health, a non-profit Catholic healthcare service.[6]
In 2015 Allen was elected an Inaugural Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.[21]
Politics
edit2018 Victorian State Election Defeat
editAllen was the Liberal candidate in Prahran at the 2018 Victorian state election, losing to the incumbent Greens MP Sam Hibbins.[22] Allen's husband was the one to suggest that she run for State election.[23]
2019 Federal Election
editIn February 2019, Allen won preselection for the Division of Higgins, replacing the retiring Liberal MP Kelly O'Dwyer.[24] She retained the seat for the Liberals at the 2019 federal election despite suffering a six percent swing–enough to drop the Liberal majority to 53 percent, making Higgins a marginal seat for the first time.[25] Notably, she was the first Liberal candidate in Higgins to come up short of a majority on the first count, like several blue ribbon Liberal seats in inner cities around Australia.[6][26]
Allen was sworn in as the Member for Higgins at the Opening of the 46th Parliament in Canberra, making her First Speech on 29 July 2019.[5] In the speech, Allen noted familial ties to Margaret Bondfield – a British suffragette and the UK’s first woman cabinet minister as Minister for Labour.[5]
Allen sat on the Parliamentary Standing Committees for Trade and Investment; the National Broadband Network; the Parliamentary Library; Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources and Communications and the Arts,[27] and was a member of the National Redress Scheme Implementation Committee and Working Group on Indigenous Recognition.[28] Allen visited PNG in August 2019 as part of a Parliamentary tour hosted by the Save the Children and Gates Foundation in the context of the Morrison government Pacific Step.[29]
Allen was also co convenor of the Parliamentary Friends of UNICEF,[30] Parliamentary Friends of Child and Adolescent Health, Parliamentary Friends of Hemochromatosis, Parliamentary Friends of Young People and Parliamentary Friends of Cancer Care and Cure.[31]
Allen was a member of the moderate faction of the Parliamentary Liberal Party.[32]
2022 Federal Election Defeat
editAllen was defeated at the 2022 Australian federal election by Labor's Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah, with a 4.67% swing away from Allen.[33]
Allen was the first Liberal candidate to lose the seat of Higgins since its creation in 1949,[34] making Ananda-Rajah the first Labor MP for Higgins.[35][36][37]
COVID-19 response
editAllen served on the National COVID-19 Health and Research Advisory Committee, working to provide advice on Australia’s health response to the COVID-19 pandemic to the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer.[38]
Policy interests
editBeyond health, Allen advocated within the Liberal Party for stronger action on climate change.[39][40] She is a long-time advocate for nuclear energy in Australia.[41] In 2019, she wrote an opinion piece in The Sydney Morning Herald called "Keep an open mind about nuclear power for our carbon-neutral future".[42]
Allen has been vocal on the need for education reform to support high achievers,[43] support for rural GPs,[44] Labor’s Medevac law,[45] the prospect of tax on sugar-sweetened beverages,[46] the Liberal Party's Job Ready Graduate program,[47] and support for LGBT rights.[48]
Allen is a Zionist,[49] and visited Israel in 2019 on a study trip paid for by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.[50]
On 10 February 2022, Allen crossed the floor with four other Liberal MPs for an amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act to include protection for transgender students. However, reports said that Allen, together with fellow Liberal MP Dave Sharma, agreed to only cross the floor if their votes would not be decisive in defeating the Government on the issue.[51] Allen did not join fellow Liberals Trent Zimmerman and Bridget Archer in crossing the floor against the bill’s controversial statements of belief clause. Ultimately Allen voted in favour of the final reading of the bill.[52]
Personal life
editAllen moved to the Higgins electorate in her teen years, and has lived in the affluent inner-city suburbs of Melbourne ever since.[5] She grew up swimming at the Prahran Pool.[53] Since 2004, Allen has lived in Toorak with her husband, Malcolm, who she has been married to for over 30 years.[12][5] She met her husband in 1988 at the Melbourne Cup.[54][better source needed] Her husband works as a consultant and advisor across industries including finance, oil and gas, mining and private equity.[23]
She has four children, Monty, Jemima, Arabella and Archie.[5]
Allen has said that her advice to women juggling work and family is to pay for help, saying "don't be proud, get help", and "not everyone has that privilege, but at the end of the day, you do need to make that financial decision".[23]
Four generations of Allen's family went to Melbourne Girls Grammar, including Allen herself and her own children.[5]
Allen and her husband own a holiday house in Point Lonsdale in Victoria.[50] She is a member of the Point Lonsdale Tennis Club, the Point Lonsdale Surf Lifesaving Club, the Royal Children's Hospital Alpine Ski Club, the Albury Ski Club, the Lyceum Club of Melbourne and the Royal South Yarra Tennis Club.[50]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f "Dr Katie Allen". www.aph.gov.au. Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
- ^ a b "Higgins (Key Seat) - Federal Electorate, Candidates, Results".
- ^ Allen, Katie (23 August 2019). "Facebook - Dr Katie Allen". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "Grape expectations: Six generations adding flavour to dinner tables". ABC News. 13 May 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hansard - Parliament of Australia (29 July 2019). "First Speech - Dr Katie Allen MP". www.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ a b c "Higgins (Key Seat)". ABC News. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
- ^ Allen, Katrina Jane. "Liver cell transplantation using a mouse model of Wilson's disease". University of Melbourne Library. University of Melbourne. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
- ^ "Curriculum Vitae: Katie Allen". Murdoch Childrens Research Institute. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
- ^ "Pathways to Parliament". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
- ^ Allen KJ, Cheah DM, Wright PF, Gazeas S, Pettigrew-Buck NE, Deal YH, Mercer JF, Williamson R. (2004). "Liver cell transplantation leads to repopulation and functional correction in a mouse model of Wilson's disease". Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 19 (11): 1283–1290. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1746.2004.03451.x. PMID 15482536. S2CID 20839129.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Liver cell transplant creates a little marvel". Sydney Morning Herald.
- ^ a b Carey, Adam (17 March 2019). "Liberals call in the doctor to save the party's heartland in Higgins". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ Allen KJ, Mifsud NA, Williamson R, Bertolino P, Hardikar W. (2008). "Cell-mediated rejection results in allograft loss after liver cell transplantation". Liver Transplantation. 14 (5): 688–694. doi:10.1002/lt.21443. PMID 18433045. S2CID 22298034.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Katie Allen". The Conversation. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
- ^ "Katie Allen". Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
- ^ "Katie Allen". The Conversation. 28 October 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
- ^ "Melbourne top of table for food allergies". SBS News. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
- ^ "New recommendations for infant feeding". ABC Radio National. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
- ^ Bloom, Dave (16 February 2016). "Asia to Australia Migration Provides Clue to Nut Allergy". SnackSafely.com. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
- ^ "Insight, Gut Feeling - Simone and Darcey Langshaw". NITV. 14 March 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
- ^ "Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences" (PDF). Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. October 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
- ^ Carey, Adam. "Liberals call in the doctor to save the party's heartland in Higgins". Sydney Morning Herald.
- ^ a b c "Behind every great leader: Dr Katie Allen and Malcolm Allen". Pathways to Politics. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
- ^ "Liberals choose Katie Allen to replace Kelly O'Dwyer in Melbourne electorate of Higgins". ABC News. 24 February 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
- ^ Carey, Alexis (18 May 2019). "Federal election 2019: Liberals hold on to Higgins". Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "The Morrison election: What we know now". The Monthly. 2 June 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ "Dr Katie Allen MP". Parliament of Australia: Senators and Members. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ "Katie Allen MP Biography". Liberal Party of Australia. 12 March 2019.
- ^ "Africa On Our Doorstep: The Health Crisis a Short Plane Ride From Australia". Sydney Morning Herald. 3 January 2020.
- ^ "Australian Parliamentary Association for UNICEF". UNICEF Australia.
- ^ "Parliamentary Friendship Groups for the 46th Parliament Register". Parliament of Australia.
- ^ Massola, James (20 March 2021). "Who's who in the Liberals' left, right and centre factions?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ^ "Australian Electoral Commission - Tally Room". Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "Mark knows he has one more vote before he dies – so he asked high schoolers what to do". ABC News. 13 May 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "Higgins (Key Seat) - Federal Electorate, Candidates, Results". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
- ^ "'I represent Australia's migrant story': Tamil-origin MP says diverse parliament benefits all". SBS Language. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "Division of Higgins", Wikipedia, 5 September 2024, retrieved 24 September 2024
- ^ "National COVID-19 Health and Research Advisory Committee". National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
- ^ "Climate Action is no longer a luxury but a necessity". The Sydney Morning Herald. 30 November 2019.
- ^ "House of Representatives: Matters of Public Importance - Climate Change". Parliament of Australia Hansard.
- ^ Allen, Katie (7 February 2020). "Keep an open mind about nuclear power for our carbon-neutral future". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "Keep an open mind about nuclear power for our carbon neutral future". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 February 2020.
- ^ "Our 'cruisy' education system is letting down high achievers". The Age. 7 October 2019.
- ^ "Post-bushfire communities need GPs now more than ever". AusDoc. 4 March 2020.
- ^ "There was never a need for Labor's medevac law". The Sydney Morning Herald. 27 January 2020.
- ^ Allen, William M. K.; Allen, Katrina J. (2020). "Should Australia tax sugar-sweetened beverages?". Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. 56 (1): 8–15. doi:10.1111/jpc.14666. ISSN 1440-1754. PMID 31782574.
- ^ "University fee changes prepare us for post COVID opportunities". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 June 2020.
- ^ Read, Lisa Visentin, Cloe (1 February 2022). "Moderate Liberals to push protections for gay students after Queensland case". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Left's anti-Zionism is just the oldest hatred in disguise". LinkedIn - Katie Allen MP. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ a b c "Katie Allen's private interests". openpolitics.au. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ Karp, Paul (11 February 2022). "'I did what was right': Liberal rebel Fiona Martin on the change that sank the religious discrimination bill". Guardian Australia.
- ^ Evans, Jake (10 February 2022). "The government lost a dramatic showdown on religious discrimination laws overnight. So what happened?". ABC.
- ^ Allen, Katie (6 August 2021). "Facebook - Dr Katie Allen". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ Allen, Katie (2 November 2021). "Facebook - Dr Katie Allen". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 24 September 2024.