Katy Gallagher

Early years and background

Gallagher was born and raised in the Weston Creek district of Canberra. She was educated in Duffy, and at Melrose High School and Canberra College (previously known as Stirling College), before completing a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Sociology at the Australian National University in 1990.

She was initially employed as a social worker, assisting with a community life skills project and working with children with disabilities. From 1994 to 1997, she worked as an advocate for People First ACT, a support and advocacy organisation for the intellectually disabled. Around this time, Gallagher became involved in the labour movement, and took on a position with the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), first working as a case manager and then a national organiser.

In 1997, Gallagher's fiance, Brett Seaman (also a CPSU organiser), was killed in a cycling accident in Merimbula. At the time, Gallagher was 13 weeks' pregnant with her first daughter. An 86-year-old female pensioner narrowly escaped a jail term for dangerous and irresponsible driving for the crash. The union movement assisted Gallagher with the funeral and court case that followed the accident.

Gallagher is a classically trained cellist and despite time constraints still plays.

Australian Capital Territory politics

The support provided to Gallagher by the Labor Party and union movement inspired her to run for pre-selection as one of the Labor candidates for the electorate of Molonglo for the 2001 ACT general election. At the time, Labor had two incumbent members in the Assembly representing Molonglo. Long-serving independent Michael Moore retired at the election. The election saw Labor come to power, led by Jon Stanhope. Despite Gallagher winning just 4.38% of the first preference vote, following distribution of preferences, Gallagher was elected as the fifth member to the seven member seat, behind Humphries, Tucker, Corbell, and Quinlan.

Gallagher was appointed to the second arrangement of the first Stanhope ministry on 23 December 2002, when she was given the portfolios of education, youth and family services; women; and industrial relations. A minor change on 26 May 2004 saw Gallagher's ministry for education, youth and family services divided into separate responsibilities.

At the 2004 ACT general election, Gallagher polled strongly, generating 11.59% of the first preference vote and was the first candidate elected to represent Molonglo in the Assembly, ahead of both Labor colleagues, Quinlan and Corbell. Gallager's ministerial responsibilities were unchanged in the first arrangement of the second Stanhope ministry and, on 20 April 2006, following the retirement of Ted Quinlan, she was promoted to Deputy Chief Minister with ministerial responsibilities including health, disability and community services, and women. The ministry for children and young people was restored to Gallagher's responsibilities on 17 April 2007.

At the 2008 ACT general election, Gallagher again polled strongly, generating 15.78% of the first-preference vote and was the second candidate elected to represent Molonglo in the Assembly, behind Liberal leader, Seselja. In the third Stanhope ministry, Gallagher took on ministerial responsibility for treasury, in addition to retaining both health and women; whilst a subsequent reshuffle on 9 November 2009 saw her resume ministerial responsibility for industrial relations and lose the portfolio of women.

Minister for Health

Amid allegations of bullying, it was reported in early 2010 that nine obstetricians had resigned from Canberra Hospital in the preceding 13 months. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists called on Gallagher to conduct an external, transparent review of the hospital; and, although initially denying the claims, Gallagher agreed to two external reviews, one to look at workplace issues and the other to investigate patient outcomes. The patient outcome review, when handed down in August 2010, sharply criticised hospital management with regards to workload, but stated that patient care was adequate. A number of months earlier, Gallagher faced pressure from the Catholic Church, following an agreement that the ACT Government would purchase Calvary Hospital (in Bruce) from the Little Company of Mary Health Care (LCMHC) – an independent arm of the Church – for $77m. Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell claimed that the Government's motives were ideological and driven by anti-Christian elements. Gallagher denied the claims. A dispute subsequently arose between LCMHC and the Government over an accounting concession and the government withdrew from the purchase. The culmination of these matters led the Liberal leader, Zed Seselja, on 17 August 2010, to move a no confidence vote in the Assembly against Gallagher as Minister for Health as follows:

That this Assembly no longer has confidence in the Minister for Health, Katy Gallagher, for her continued neglect of the Health portfolio, most particularly... management failure, staff bullying, over working, and poor processes; ... complete failure in the Calvary Hospital purchase; ... and many instances of attacking those who made complaints, ignoring those who gave advice, and dealing with the problems through denial and neglect; ... and the ongoing poor performance of the ACT health system ...

The motion was defeated (five in favour, nine against), with the ACT Greens supporting the government.

Chief minister

On 12 May 2011, while Gallagher was deputy chief minister, the current chief minister at the time, Jon Stanhope, resigned. On 16 May 2011, Gallagher was elected by the Assembly as the ACT's 6th Chief Minister and 3rd female Chief Minister. The ALP won an additional seat in the 2012 Australian Capital Territory general election, and remained in government after securing the support of the sole remaining Green MLA.

During her term as Chief Minister, Gallagher welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the ACT on their Australian tour in April 2014.

On 5 December 2014 Gallagher announced that she would resign as chief minister to pursue the upcoming Senate vacancy left by the resignation of Kate Lundy. She resigned as Chief Minister and her former deputy Andrew Barr was elected as her replacement on 11 December 2014.

Federal politics

Gallagher was sworn in as a Senator on 26 March 2015. On 25 September 2015 Gallagher nominated to join the Shadow Ministry in the Labor Party Caucus. She was elected by the caucus alongside Jim Chalmers unopposed.

On 13 October 2015, Gallagher was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet in the roles of Shadow Minister for Mental Health, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness, and Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on State and Territory Relations. She held those positions until 23 July 2016 when she was promoted to Shadow Minister for Small Business and Financial Services. On 12 September 2016, Gallagher was also appointed as Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate.

Gallagher is a supporter of same-sex marriage having overseen the introduction of it when as ACT Chief Minister only to be overturned by the High Court.

As a Senator, Gallagher joined her former territory foe former ACT Liberal leader Zed Seselja in the Senate. Seselja had resigned as ACT Opposition leader and from the territory Parliament for his successful bid for the Senate. As the ACT has two Senate seats, the ACT is represented in the Senate by former territory foes Gallagher and Seselja.

Personal life

Gallagher was previously engaged to Brett Seaman, who died in a road accident in 1997. She is married to Dave Skinner and has three children: Abigail, Charlie and Evie.