Kristina Keneally

Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an American-born Australian politician who served as the first female Premier of New South Wales from 2009 to 2011 and was later a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 until April 2022.

She resigned from the Senate to contest the House of Representatives seat of Fowler, but was unsuccessful.

While at Notre Dame she was twice awarded most valuable player (1985, 1986) in the Academy's soccer team.

Upon graduating from Notre Dame, she undertook studies at the University of Dayton, also in Ohio.

While there she became involved in student politics, and was involved in founding the National Association of Students at Catholic Colleges and Universities, serving as president of the group in 1990 and 1991.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1991, was a registered Democrat and worked as an intern for the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, Paul Leonard.

Keneally met her future husband, a member of the Australian Labor Party, Ben Keneally, at World Youth Day 1991 in Poland.

She moved to Australia in 1994 to be with him, but they returned to the US, so Ben could take up a position with the Boston Consulting Group.

In 1995 she graduated with a Master of Arts in religious studies.

She later studied at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

After graduating from the University of Dayton she worked for a year as a volunteer teacher in New Mexico.

For most of her life, she has identified as a staunch feminist.

They married there in 1996.

They returned to Australia two years later, after their elder son was born.

After marrying an Australian, Ben Keneally, she settled in Australia permanently and became a naturalised citizen in 2000.

She became a naturalised Australian in 2000, the same year she joined the Labor Party.

She renounced U.S. citizenship in 2002, prior to standing for election.

After arriving in Australia she worked for the New South Wales branch of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul as State Youth Coordinator before leaving full-time work to care for her children.

She also briefly attended the Australian Catholic University in Strathfield, New South Wales.

Keneally was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Heffron at the 2003 state election, succeeding Deirdre Grusovin after a controversial preselection process.

After being re-elected to parliament at the 2007 state election, she became the Minister for Ageing and Disability Services and was subsequently appointed Minister for Planning by Premier Nathan Rees in 2008.

She was also the state government's spokeswoman for World Youth Day 2008.

By December 2009, Keneally had emerged as the preferred leadership candidate of the Labor Right faction, and defeated incumbent Premier Nathan Rees (who had been in office for just 15 months) in a party room ballot, winning by 47 votes to 21.

In 2009, she told The Daily Telegraph that when she heard her diocese's bishop was on a local talk show, she called to ask him why girls could not be altar servers.

The bishop's "unsatisfactory answer," she said, awakened her to "how women are disadvantaged in the Church and society."

The Keneally Government went on to suffer a 16.5 percent two-party preferred statewide swing at the 2011 state election – the biggest swing in Australian political history.

She resigned as Labor Party leader on election night and was succeeded by John Robertson, who was elected unopposed, on 31 March 2011.

She resigned from Parliament in June 2012.

In 2014, Keneally joined Sky News Live as a political commentator, later becoming co-host of To The Point.

She took leave in November 2017 to stand as the Labor candidate for the Bennelong by-election, achieving a swing to Labor but losing to previous member John Alexander.

In February 2018 she was appointed to the Senate to fill a casual vacancy caused by Sam Dastyari's resignation.

From 2019 to 2022 she served as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, and Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.

Keneally was born in the United States to an American father and an Australian mother.

She grew up in Toledo, Ohio, and is a graduate of the University of Dayton.

After the 2019 leadership election, Keneally was selected as deputy Senate leader in the shadow cabinet of new Labor leader Anthony Albanese.

She was also given the portfolios of Home Affairs and Immigration and Citizenship.

At the 2022 federal election, Keneally, whose main residency is in the Northern Beaches, was parachuted into the traditionally safe Labor seat of Fowler, which has one of the highest concentrations of Vietnamese Australians in the country.

As a result of community backlash against her candidacy, Labor suffered a 15.6% swing against them, and she was defeated by independent challenger Dai Le, a Vietnamese-Australian journalist and former Liberal Party candidate.

Keneally was born Kristina Marie Kerscher in Las Vegas to an American father and an Australian mother (born in Brisbane).

She lived briefly in Colorado but grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where she attended high school at Notre Dame Academy.