Michelle Ananda-Rajah
Senate · Australian Labor Party · Labor Right
Biography
Michelle Renuka Ananda-Rajah (Tamil: மிசேல் ஆனந்தராஜா; born 10 December 1972) is an Australian politician who is a senator for Victoria since July 2025. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), she previously served as the member for Higgins in the House of Representatives from 2022 to 2025. After Higgins was abolished due to a redistribution, Ananda-Rajah was elected to the Senate from the 3rd place on the Labor ticket in the 2025 federal election. Her six-year term began on 1 July 2025. Prior to entering politics, she was a clinician-scientist, and infectious diseases physician.
Adapted and shortened from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Date of birth
- 1972-12-10
- Place of birth
- London, England
- APH identifier
- 290544
Political connections
First-degree, sourced relationships in the current snapshot.
- Chris Bowen · Shared faction: Labor RightWikipedia (opens in a new tab)
- Jana Stewart · Shared faction: Labor RightWikipedia (opens in a new tab)
- Alison Byrnes · Shared faction: Labor RightWikipedia (opens in a new tab)
- Cassandra Fernando · Shared faction: Labor RightWikipedia (opens in a new tab)
- Zaneta Mascarenhas · Shared party: Australian Labor PartyParliament of Australia (opens in a new tab)
- Sally Sitou · Shared party: Australian Labor PartyParliament of Australia (opens in a new tab)
- Richard Dowling · Shared party: Australian Labor PartyParliament of Australia (opens in a new tab)
- Joanne Ryan · Shared party: Australian Labor PartyParliament of Australia (opens in a new tab)
Parliamentary and professional history
Current and senior roles
- 26 October 2022–12 September 2023Member of the Speaker's Panel
Committee service
- 28 July 2022–presentJoint Statutory — Public Accounts and Audit
- 28 July 2022–presentHouse of Representatives Standing — Procedure
- 28 July 2022–presentHouse of Representatives Standing — Health, Aged Care and Sport
Qualifications
- 1 January 2013–presentPhD
- 1 January 1997–presentMBBS (Hons)
Occupations
- 1 January 2021–presentAssociate Editor from January 2021.
- 1 November 2020–1 February 2021Associate Professor from November 2020 to February 2021.
- 1 July 2019–1 August 2022Statistical and Methods Reviewer from July 2019 to August 2022.
- 1 January 2019–1 January 2020Research Fellow from 2019 to 2020.
- 1 January 2009–1 August 2022Medical Doctor from January 2009 to August 2022.