What Degrees do Ministers in Australia Have and Why it Matters (Guess the top 3!)

When you went to vote in the federal election last month, did you have any idea what formal qualifications your candidate had?

Chances are, you didn’t, but you wouldn’t be alone in that. In fact (as we discovered when drafting this article!) trying to find data on types of education among the newly elected 46^th Parliament of Australia is no easy task.

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?’

We’ve compiled own data set, based on information collected from the Australian Parliament website. We looked at formal qualifications of the 23 Liberal-Coalition Ministers, and 21 Shadow Ministers of the Opposition.

Who are the 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 of Education). They are just a fraction of the representatives who form our federal government. The House of Representatives has 150 MPs, and the Senate has 76 members.

Specifically, when looking at their education we wanted to know:

What differences are there between the major parties, in terms of their qualifications? What educational backgrounds are our Ministers coming from? And, does any of this matter?

(Before you read on, see if you can guess the top 3. No prizes for getting it right!)

Here’s what we found

Labor: Among 21 Shadow Ministers, there are a total of 34 qualifications all together, ranging from certificate to doctorate level. The vast majority are Bachelors Degrees.

Liberal: Among 23 Ministers, there are a total of 49 qualifications, also ranging from certificate to doctorate level; again the vast majority are Bachelor’s Degrees.

So, what are the 3 most popular degrees?

Without a doubt, the three most popular degrees across both parties are:

1. Law
2. Arts
3. Economics
   

Differences between the education types and levels of the parties?

There are not any particularly large differences in the educational backgrounds of both parties (see the chart below for details.) For both, Bachelors in Law and Arts are the dominant qualification by far.

There is slightly more diversity in types of degrees in the Liberal Cabinet, plus it contains more business and economics focused degrees. Whereas, Labor Shadow Ministers tend to lean slightly more towards arts, humanities and journalism.

Other fun facts

• There are two people out of the total 44 without any formal qualifications, and they are both in the Liberal Cabinet (see below).
• Of the total 83 qualifications (among 44 people), 12 are at a certificate or diploma level, (four of these belong to one person, Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC, Minister for Defence!)
• The most popular combination of qualifications was a double degree in Arts and Law, across both parties.
• The most popular Universities among Ministers of both parties are the University of Sydney, Adelaide University, and Monash University.

Results in summary

Scroll down for a full table of every individual politician and their degree.

And, the final question: does any of this matter?

There are several different ways to answer that question, depending on your point of view.

Who’s actually represented?

If you were someone who is concerned about our Ministers coming from a wealthy elite that doesn’t represent or understand the daily struggles of other Australians, then you would potentially be concerned.

Not only do the majority of Ministers we’ve tallied have a fairly uniform Arts/Law double degree; they’re also often graduates of the more expensive universities. As we can see from the degree types of Ministers across both parties, very few can claim to be really ‘of the working class,’ so it’s probably good to be skeptical of any MP who wears a hard hat.

In fact, according to an ABC report published last year, legal professionals (barristers, solicitors, lawyers, etc.) make up 10.6% of the Australian Parliament, and only 0.7% of the Australian population as a whole. While this may be good for interpreting the law (which is a big function of parliament), it’s not very good in terms of representative democracy.

Better ideas, please

If you want a more innovative government, then you may also want more diversity.

There has been a lot of research lately into benefits of diversity in fostering innovation in business. By putting people who are very different together to solve problems, you generate more creative solutions!

With the serious challenges we face, such as climate change, the 46^th Australian parliament could probably use an injection of some new input from people of different backgrounds. After all, Australians are far more diverse than the faces we see in parliament, and we’ve come up with some great ideas (lamingtons, yum!)

Relevance to the actual job description

If you’re employing a tax agent to sort out your finances, you want to know they’ve studied accounting. So, what about the group of people we’ve ‘hired’ to run the country?

Some Ministers are incredibly competent, arriving at their job with a CV that makes them appear they’ve worked towards their portfolio their entire life. However, it’s not uncommon in our political system for politicians to be handed a job in an area they’ve never had any experience in. That’s not great, for obvious reasons.

Take Sussan Ley, for example. At a moment when the effects of climate change are devastating Australia, she is our Environment Minister. Has she studied biology, environmental science or natural resource management? Nope, she has master’s degrees in taxation and accountancy, and she changed her name from Susan to Sussan due to a belief in numerology.

When it comes to being a Minister in the Australian Parliament, degrees matter.

Want to know exactly who studied exactly what? Get Ready! Here are our detailed tables of all Ministers and Shadow Ministers, and their qualifications.

Labor Shadow Ministers: What degrees do they have?

Liberal Ministers and Their Degrees