Alicia Emma Payne (born 24 July 1982) is an Australian politician who has been a member of 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 ...

since the 2019 federal election. She 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 represents the

Division of Canberra The Division of Canberra is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the Australian Capital Territory. It is named for the city of Canberra, Australia's national capital, and includes all of cent ...

in the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

(ACT).

Early life

Payne was born in Canberra. She attended Kambah High School before going on to study economics at 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 ...

. Before entering politics she worked at the National Centre For Social And Economic Modelling (NATSEM) and at the Department of the Treasury.

Politics

Payne joined the Labor Party in 2006. She has worked as a political staffer for several Labor MPs, serving as a senior adviser to

Lindsay Tanner Lindsay James Tanner (born 24 April 1956) is a former Australian politician. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he represented the seat of Melbourne in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2010 and served as Minister for Finance ...

and

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 ...

and later as chief of staff to

Jenny Macklin Jennifer Louise Macklin (born 29 December 1953) is an Australian former politician. She was elected to federal parliament at the 1996 federal election and served as the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2001 to 2006, und ...

. In September 2018, she won ALP

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presel ...

for the

, replacing the retiring MP

Gai Brodtmann Gai Marie Brodtmann (born 24 November 1963) is an Australian former politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives for the seat of Canberra representing the Labor Party from 2010 until 2019. A career public servant, diplomat ...

. Before her preselection, she was the vice-president of the

Australian Labor Party (Australian Capital Territory Branch) The ACT Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (ACT Branch) and commonly referred to simply as ACT Labor, is the Australian Capital Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The branch is the current ruling part ...

. Payne retained Canberra for her party at the 2019 federal election. She is factionally unaligned.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Alicia Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Canberra Living people Women members of the Australian House of Representatives 1982 births People from Canberra University of Sydney alumni 21st-century Australian women politicians Australian MPs 2019–2022 Australian MPs 2022–2025