# Michelle Rowland

Michelle Anne Rowland (born 16 November 1971) is an Australian politician. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has represented the Division of Greenway in the House of Representatives since 2010. She was a member of the shadow ministry from 2013 to 2022, and was elected President of the New South Wales Labor Party 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.

## Early years and background

Rowland was born on 16 November 1971 in Blacktown in Sydney. Her mother is Fijian, but she does not hold dual citizenship 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 and the University of Sydney. 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 (Ward 2, 2004–2008) and deputy mayor of Blacktown (2007–2008).

## Federal politics

At the 2010 Australian federal election, Rowland won the Australian House of Representatives 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 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'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's election as party leader in 2019.
Rowland was elected President of the Australian Labor Party (NSW Branch) at the NSW State Conference on 9 October 2021.

### Minister

On 10 September 2024, Albanese and Rowland confirmed that the federal government would introduce legislation to enforce a minimum age for access to social media and other relevant digital platforms. The federal government would also work with states and territorial governments to develop a uniform framework. Albanese said that the legislation was intended to safeguard the safety and mental and physical health of young people while Rowland said that the proposed legislation would hold big tech to account for harmful online environments and social media addiction among children.

## Political positions

Rowland is a member of Labor Right.
In 2012, Rowland was one of 98 MPs that voted against a bill for same-sex marriage, 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 that enacted same-sex marriage in Australia. 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.

## Personal life

Rowland is married to Michael Chaaya, with whom she is raising their two daughters, Octavia and Aurelia. The family lives in Glenwood, one of the most religious, and most ethnically diverse, communities in Australia. Rowland and her family are Catholic Christians.