What degrees Ministers in Australia have: A comprehensive list

We discovered that while data on the formal education of the current 47th Parliament of Australia and its Ministers is available on individual profiles on the Australian Parliament website, a holistic, compiled view is not easily accessible.

We’ve compiled our own data set, based on information collected from the Australian Parliament website. We looked at the formal qualifications of the 24 Government Ministers, and 23 Shadow Ministers.

We decided to take on the challenge, and answer what seems like an obvious question, ‘what degrees do our Ministers and Shadow Ministers actually have?’ 

What are Ministers and Shadow Ministers?

The Ministers and Shadow Ministers are the MPs and Senators who have been given an official ‘portfolio’ by their party (i.e. Minister for Education). They are just a fraction of the representatives who form our federal government. The House of Representatives has 151 MPs, and the Senate has 76 members.

What we wanted to know:

• What differences are there between the major parties, in terms of their portfolio holders’ qualifications?
• What is their highest level of qualification?
• In what field did they study?

Number of qualifications (individual degrees*)

Here’s what we’ve found:

*Note: A double degree counts as two individual degrees.

Number of Ministers by highest education level

Interestingly, only one Minister for the past two parliaments has a PhD, and that’s Dr Jim Chalmers, the Government’s Treasurer. He holds a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the Australian National University in Canberra.

The number of Ministers with no formal tertiary qualification increased from two to three in the new Parliament.

Our Ministers who studied in Australia

All Australian politicians with formal qualifications studied in Australia, with only one Labor minister having obtained an additional qualification from a USA University (Clare O’Neil studied at Harvard).

5 Liberal/National Ministers did some study in the USA or the UK: Ted O’Brien, Michaelia Cash, Angus Taylor, Paul Fletcher and Dan Tehan.

So, what are the most popular degrees among Australian Ministers?

Number of Ministers with degrees in each field

Scroll down for a full table with every Minister and their degree

Fun fact: when the current federal Parliament was elected in 2022, Business/Commerce overtook Economics to become the third most popular degree for a current Minister to hold.

The Ministry’s tertiary qualifications changed quite a bit when the Labor government was voted in. Here are some more fun facts:

• The number of Ministers with Political Science or Government Policy degrees increased from 3 to 7
• The number of Ministers with Education or Teaching degrees reduced from 8 to 1, and Science qualifications went down from 4 to 1.
• There are no longer any ministers with Defence qualifications.

Do our Ministers have educational backgrounds that reflect their portfolios?

If you look at the data, you’ll notice that the portfolio that a Minister holds doesn’t always reflect their field of study. As our data shows, they’ve most likely studied Commerce, Economics, Law, or a general Arts degree. While they may have gained experience in their portfolio in work after study, this isn’t always the case. Ministers use a range of advisors, public servants, experts and external bodies who are highly knowledgeable in their field to assist with portfolio expertise.

It’s true that many of our Ministers don’t have the same career and qualification history, nor experienced the same day-to-day life as the average Australian. Many of our Ministers’ areas of study and subsequent work were in Law, as a Barrister or Solicitor, in finance, as consultants, in unions, or in politicians’ offices as electoral officers or advisors.

A report from the AFR in 2024 found that Australian politicians’ educational backgrounds “aren’t particularly representative of the broader population”, rather, most of them started their careers in politics by involving themselves in political groups at their universities. Anthony Albanese is one politician who followed this path: he was heavily involved in student politics at the University of Sydney where he studied, which was his gateway to joining NSW Young Labor. After many years in federal politics, he became the Prime Minister of Australia.

Having people who’ve mostly worked in political jobs rather than regular jobs isn’t unique to Australia, it’s been examined in studies from the USA and the UK, too. However, there are a few who challenge this by having lived experiences that aren’t from the elite echelons of society. For example, Sussan Ley was previously an air traffic controller, a commercial pilot, a shearers’ cook and a wool and beef farmer before entering politics.

Labor Ministers: What degrees do they have?

Liberal/National Shadow Ministers