Christopher Eyles Guy Bowen (born 17 January 1973) is an Australian politician who has been

Minister for Climate Change and Energy The Minister for Climate Change and Energy is a portfolio in the Government of Australia. The current Minister is Chris Bowen. The minister administers his or her portfolios through the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and ...

in the

Albanese government The Albanese government is the current federal executive government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of the Labor Party. The Albanese government was sworn in on 23 May 2022 by the Governor-General of Australia, David Hurl ...

since June 2022. He is a member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

(ALP) and was first elected to parliament at the 2004 federal election. He held ministerial office in the

Rudd ''Scardinius'' is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related species. The fishes in this genus are commonly called rudds. Locally, the name "rudd" without ...

and Gillard governments from 2007 to 2013. Bowen served on the

Fairfield City Council The Fairfield City Council is a local government area in the west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The council was first incorporated as the "Municipal District of Smithfield and Fairfield" on 8 December 1888, and the coun ...

from 1995 to 2004, including a term as mayor. He was elected to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

in the 2004 election, winning the seat of Prospect; he later transferred to the seat of

McMahon McMahon or MacMahon ( or ) may refer to: Places * Division of McMahon, an electorate for the Australian House of Representatives * McMahon, Saskatchewan, a hamlet in Canada * McMahon Line, a boundary between India and China * McMahons Point, a ...

at the 2010 federal election, after his former seat was abolished. Bowen was added to

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June to September 2013. He held office as the Leaders of the Australian Labo ...

's shadow ministry in 2006, and following the ALP's victory at the 2007 election served variously as Assistant Treasurer,

Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs The Assistant Treasurer of Australia is the minister of state of the Commonwealth of Australia charged with assisting the Treasurer with overseeing government revenue collection, federal expenditure and economic policy as the head of the Depar ...

, Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, and

Human Services Human services is an interdisciplinary field of study with the objective of meeting human needs through an applied knowledge base, focusing on prevention as well as remediation of problems, and maintaining a commitment to improving the overall qu ...

. After

Julia Gillard Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as the ...

replaced Rudd as prime minister in June 2010, Bowen was made the Minister Immigration and Citizenship, and also served as the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research,

Small Business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have a small number of employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being ...

for a brief time in 2013. In June 2013, Rudd replaced Gillard as prime minister in the final leadership contest between the two, and he assigned Bowen the role of

Treasurer A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization. Government The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...

. He held this position for less than three months, as the ALP was defeated at the 2013 election. Bowen served briefly as the interim leader of the ALP and acting

leader of the opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

. He was the shadow treasurer under

Bill Shorten William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian former politician and trade unionist. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Leader of the Opposition (Australia), Leader of the Opposition from 2013 to 2019. He also ...

from 2013 to 2019. After the 2019 election, he became a candidate to succeed Shorten as party leader but eventually withdrew in favour of

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been the Leaders of the Australian Labor Party#Leader, leader of the Labor Party si ...

. After the ALP's victory in the 2022 election, Bowen was appointed Minister for Climate Change and Energy. He is regarded as a senior figure in the

Labor Right The Labor Right (LR), also known as Labor Forum, Labor Unity or simply Unity, is one of the two major political factions within the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It is nationally characterised by social democratic to Third Way economic policies ...

faction.

Early years and background

Bowen was born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

to Christine and Ross Bowen. His father worked for the

National Roads and Motorists' Association National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, while his mother, who was born in the United Kingdom, was a childcare worker. Bowen grew up in the suburb of Smithfield. He began his education at Smithfield Public School, and later attended St Johns Park High School before going on to the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, where he graduated with a

Bachelor of Economics A Bachelor of Economics (BEc or BEcon)Bureau of Labor StatisticsHow to Become an Economist/ref> is an academic degree, awarded to students who have completed specialised undergraduate studies in economics. Variants include the "Bachelor of Econo ...

in 1994. One of his tutors was the future Greek finance minister

Yanis Varoufakis Ioannis Georgiou "Yanis" Varoufakis (; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. Since 2018, he has been Secretary-General of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), a left-wing pan-European political party he co-founde ...

Political career

Bowen was elected to

in 1995 and was Mayor of Fairfield in 1998 and 1999. He was elected president of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) in 1999 and served as president until 2001. In 2004, Bowen was elected to the House of Representatives replacing Janice Crosio after she retired after 25 years in both state and federal politics. In 2006, Bowen was appointed to the Labor front bench as Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Revenue and Competition Policy.

Government minister (2007–13)

First Rudd and Gillard ministries (2007–2010)

In December 2007 Prime Minister

appointed him Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs. In June 2009 Bowen was promoted to cabinet as Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law and Minister for Human Services. In April 2010 Bowen announced significant reforms to the financial services sector including banning of commissions for financial planners giving advice on retail investment products including superannuation, managed investments and margin loans; instituting a statutory fiduciary duty so that financial advisers must act in the best interests of their clients, and increasing the powers of the corporate regulator; the

Australian Securities and Investments Commission The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is an independent commission of the Australian Government tasked as the national corporate regulator. ASIC's role is to regulate company and financial services and enforce laws to pro ...

. The reforms were partially a response to the high-profile collapse of

Storm Financial Storm Financial Limited was a financial advice company, based in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The company was founded by Emmanuel Cassimatis and his wife Julie Cassimatis as a private company initially with the name Cassimatis Securities Pt ...

, Westpoint and Opes Prime and the resultant losses for retail investors, but also reflected global concerns with financial governance following the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. The reforms are due to be fully implemented on 1 July 2013.

Second Gillard ministry (2010–2013)

In September 2010, Bowen was appointed Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, succeeding Senator Chris Evans. On 2 February 2013, Bowen replaced Evans as Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research. Evans was also Minister for Small Business. Chris Bowen resigned his ministerial portfolios on 22 March 2013 after he supported an unsuccessful attempt to reinstall Kevin Rudd as prime minister.

Second Rudd ministry (2013–2013)

Following the June 2013 leadership spill, Bowen was reinstated as a Cabinet Minister and given the portfolio of Treasurer. He was sworn in on 27 June 2013. He was also given responsibility for financial services and superannuation, including carriage of the

MySuper MySuper is part of the Stronger Super reforms announced in September 2011 by the Gillard Labor government for the Australian superannuation industry to replace the previous default funds system with a new default system using low cost and simple ...

and other Simple Super reforms previously held by

Opposition (2013–22)

Bowen was appointed Interim Leader of the Labor Party on 13 September 2013 following the resignation of Kevin Rudd in the wake of the party's defeat in the 2013 federal election. He pledged not to stand in the October 2013 leadership spill which was contested by

and

. Shorten was elected as leader. Bowen was later appointed Shadow Treasurer by Bill Shorten. After Labor's loss in the 2019 federal election, Shorten announced his pending resignation as leader of the party. Bowen was considered a frontrunner to succeed him. On 21 May, Bowen announced his candidacy in the leadership ballot, but withdrew the following day. He was subsequently replaced as Shadow Treasurer by

Jim Chalmers James Edward Chalmers (born 2 March 1978) is an Australian politician and economist who has been serving as the treasurer of Australia in the Albanese government since May 2022. A member of the Labor Party (ALP), he has been the member of p ...

, but remained on the frontbench as Shadow Minister for Health. As Shadow Treasurer after his stint as Treasurer, he was shadow to his three immediate successors as Treasurer, Joe Hockey, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg.

Government minister (2022–)

Following the 2022 federal election, Bowen was appointed

in the Albanese ministry. Bowen faced criticism in early 2024 for taking a private jet to a ministerial announcement about clean energy, while the Prime Minister also flew there in another private jet. It was reported that the flights were taken on advice from the RAAF. Minister Bowen oversaw policy reforms to energy and industrial policy during the Albanese government. This included changes to the Safeguard Mechanism and Australian Carbon Credit Units, establishing the Rewiring the Nation Fund and the Capacity Investment Scheme to support investments in new renewable energy infrastructure.

Political positions

Bowen supports same-sex marriage. Notably in 2017, his Division of McMahon had the 3rd highest percentage of "No" responses in the

Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was a national survey by the Australian Government designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. The survey was held via the Australia Post, postal service between 12 Septe ...

, with 64.9% of the electorate's respondents to the survey responding "No". In April 2020, Bowen supported then

Foreign Minister In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

Marise Payne Marise Ann Payne (born 29 July 1964) is an Australian politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1997 until 2023, representing the Liberal Party. She held senior ministerial office in Coalition governments between 2013 and 2022, inclu ...

's call for an independent global inquiry into the origins of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

including China's handling of the initial outbreak in

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

Personal life

Bowen is married to Rebecca Mifsud, who worked for

Toll Group The Toll Group is an Australian freight company that operates a logistics and global freight forwarding network spanning 150 countries, with over 20,000 customers. Toll has more than 16,000 workers across 500 sites. Toll Holdings Pty Limited ( ...

as an industrial relations executive. They met at the 2000 ALP National Conference, where Mifsud was a delegate for the Electrical Trades Union. The couple have two children together and reside in Smithfield, Bowen's childhood suburb. Bowen's mother lost two baby boys when the family was still living in the United Kingdom - in 1959 and in 1960. Bowen revealed this story in order to raise awareness to the lasting negative effects of

stillbirth Stillbirth is typically defined as fetus, fetal death at or after 20 or 28 weeks of pregnancy, depending on the source. It results in a baby born without vital signs, signs of life. A stillbirth can often result in the feeling of guilt (emotio ...

s on families. Bowen possesses a Diploma of Modern Language (Bahasa Indonesia) from the

University of New England University of New England may refer to: * University of New England (Australia), in New South Wales, with about 26,000 students * University of New England (United States), in Biddeford, Maine, with about 6,000 students See also * New England Coll ...

. Bowen supports the

Greater Western Sydney Giants The Greater Western Sydney Giants (officially the Greater Western Sydney Football Club and colloquially known as the GWS Giants or simply GWS or Giants) are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney Olympic Park which repres ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

Bibliography

* ''Hearts and Minds: A Blueprint for Modern Labor'' (2013) * ''The Money Men: Australia's Twelve Most Notable Treasurers'' (2015) *''On Charlatans'' (2021)

References

External links

Chris Bowen's official website
*
Profile on the Parliament of Australia website

Summary of parliamentary voting for Chris Bowen MP on TheyVoteForYou.org.au
, - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, Chris 1973 births Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians Leaders of the opposition (Australia) Gillard government Living people Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Prospect Members of the Australian House of Representatives for McMahon Members of the Cabinet of Australia Politicians from Sydney Rudd government Treasurers of Australia University of Sydney alumni Writers from Sydney Mayors of Fairfield, New South Wales Albanese government Members of the Australian House of Representatives Australian MPs 2004–2007 Australian MPs 2007–2010 Australian MPs 2010–2013 Australian MPs 2013–2016 Australian MPs 2016–2019 Australian MPs 2019–2022 Australian MPs 2022–2025