Anika Shay Wells (born 11 August 1985) 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 Lilley The Division of Lilley is an Australian Electoral Divisions, Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. The current MP is Anika Wells of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). History The division was first proclaimed in 1913. The division is n ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. Wells is currently the Minister for Communications and Minister for Sport.

Early life

Wells was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Queensland, on 11 August 1985. Her father, an accountant, was born in Melbourne and her mother, an administrator, was born in New Zealand. As a result, Wells held New Zealand citizenship by descent until February 2018, when she renounced it to stand for parliament. Wells attended

Moreton Bay College Moreton Bay College is an independent Uniting Church, day school for girls, located in Manly West, an outer suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Established in 1901 as the Moreton Bay Girls' High School, by Alice J. Alison Greene and her ...

, where she was school captain. She holds arts and law degrees from

Griffith University Griffith University is a public university, public research university in South East Queensland on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of Australia. The university was founded in 1971, but was not officially opened until 1975. Griffith ...

as well as a graduate diploma in legal practice from the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

Career

Prior to entering politics, Wells worked as an adviser to the federal government for five years. She was admitted to practise law in 2012 and joined Maurice Blackburn in 2014 as a compensation lawyer. She worked on a number of cases related to

immigration detention Immigration detention is the policy and practice of incarcerating both foreign national asylum seekers/refugees and immigrants — whether suspected of unauthorized arrival, illegal entry, visa violations, as well as those subject to deportation ...

Politics

Opposition (2019–2022)

In March 2018, Wells won Labor

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 member

Wayne Swan Wayne Maxwell Swan (born 30 June 1954) is an Australian politician serving as the 25th and current Australian Labor Party National Executive#National Presidents, National President of the Labor Party since 2018, previously serving as the 14th de ...

. She won the seat at the 2019 federal election despite a five-point swing against the ALP on the

two-party-preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP), is the result of an opinion poll or a projection of an election result where preferences are distributed to one of the two major parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal/Natio ...

count. At the time, Wells was Australia's youngest female MP at 34. Wells served on the "Inquiry into the destruction of 46,000-year-old caves at the

Juukan Gorge Juukan Gorge is a gorge in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, about from Tom Price, Western Australia, Tom Price. It was named by the daughter of Puutu Kunti Kurrama man Juukan, also known as Tommy Ashburton, who w ...

in the Pilbara region of Western Australia", which delivered its report “Never Again” in December 2020.PDF
During her first term Wells received negative media attention from the Australian for placing junior members of her staff on recurring month-long casual contracts despite being a critic of casualisation of the work force.

Albanese government (2022–present)

Wells went into the May 2022 federal election on a margin of 0.6 per cent in Lilley but emerged with a first preference swing toward Labor of 6.48 per cent. The election of a Federal Labor government precipitated her elevation to the ministry. Wells is a member of Queensland's

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 ...

and the party's rules on

affirmative action Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies) refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking ...

meant

Blair Blair is a Scots-English-language name of Scottish Gaelic origin. The surname is derived from any of the numerous places in Scotland called ''Blair'', derived from the Scottish Gaelic ''blàr'', meaning "plain", "meadow" or " field", frequently ...

Shayne Neumann Shayne Kenneth Neumann (born 26 August 1961) is an Australian politician. He was elected to the Federal seat of Blair in November 2007, and re-elected in 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025. In March 2013, Shayne was appointed Parliamentary S ...

was relegated to the backbench after serving on the shadow frontbench. On 31 May Prime Minister

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 ...

announced his ministry. Wells was named Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Sport. In June 2023, Wells established a new task force looking into the creation of a taxpayer levy or other funding solutions to raise more money for aged care facilities. The system costs tax payers over $30 billion a year. Wells held her seat in the 2025 federal election. In the second Albanese ministry, she continued as Minister for Sport and was appointed as Minister for Communications, while succeeded as Minister for Aged Care and Seniors by Sam Rae.

Personal life

Wells already had one daughter when she entered parliament. She gave birth to twin sons in 2020.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Anika Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Lilley Labor Right politicians Living people Australian women lawyers Women members of the Australian House of Representatives Griffith University alumni Australian National University alumni People who lost New Zealand citizenship Australian people of New Zealand descent 21st-century Australian women politicians 1985 births Australian MPs 2019–2022 Australian MPs 2022–2025 Politicians from Brisbane