Monique Ryan | |
|---|---|
 Ryan in 2022 | |
| Member of the Australian Parliament for Kooyong | |
| Assumed office 21 May 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Josh Frydenberg |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Monique Marie Ryan 20 January 1967[1] Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Political party | Independent |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | University of Melbourne University of Sydney |
| Occupation | Paediatric neurologist |
| Known for | Director of Neurology at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne |
| Website | https://www.moniqueryan.com.au/ |
Monique Marie Ryan (born 20 January 1967) is an Australian politician and former paediatric neurologist. She is currently the independent member of parliament for the Division of Kooyong, having won the seat at the 2022 Australian federal election.
Ryan completed her medical qualifications in Melbourne, Sydney and Boston, before becoming director of neurology at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital in 2014. In 2022, Ryan became a teal independent candidate for the division of Kooyong, supported by Climate 200, and defeated the incumbent Liberal member Josh Frydenberg, who was also the Treasurer in the Morrison government at the time.
Ryan was born in Melbourne on 20 January 1967.[1] She has a twin sister and is one of seven children born to Maurice and Marguerite Ryan.[2]
Ryan grew up in the suburbs of Caulfield North, Toorak and Hawthorn.[3] She attended Loreto Mandeville Hall, Toorak, graduating as dux in 1984.[4]
Ryan graduated in medicine at the University of Melbourne in 1991. Ryan then completed her paediatric training in Sydney and a neurology residency at the Children's Hospital Boston, in Boston. Ryan also completed a neurophysiology fellowship at the Lahey Clinic in Boston.[5] In 2015, Ryan became director of neurology at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, where she supervised 45 people and had a research budget of A$3.5 million.[6][5][7] Ryan was also appointed as head of the RCH neuromuscular clinic and neuromuscular research unit.[8]
Ryan has over 150 peer-reviewed publications and has overseen a number of clinical trials for neuromuscular diseases including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and spinal muscular atrophy.[5] Ryan's publications have over 10,000 citations, and she has an H-index of 50, which is a measure of the impact of her research.[9] She was joint editor of Neuromuscular Disorders of Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence: A clinician's approach, a textbook published in 2014.[10]
Ryan was awarded prizes for her research in neurology by the Child Neurology Society (USA) in 2000, the American Academy of Neurologists in 2002, and the XIth International Congress on Neuromuscular Disorders in 2006.[11] In 2019, Ryan was awarded the Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence Innovation Award for her impact in medical research.[8]
In 2019 and 2023, Ryan was called as an expert witness to inquiries into the deaths of Kathleen Folbigg's children, where she testified that neurogenetic disorders may have been the cause of the death of Folbigg's son Patrick.[12]
Ryan was announced as the independent candidate to run in the 2022 federal election in the division of Kooyong. Her candidacy came about after she responded to an advertisement in The Age calling for an independent to unseat Josh Frydenberg, after he had previously received an 8% swing against him in the previous election.[3] Ryan was one of a number of centrist[13] teal independents who campaigned to unseat moderate Liberal Party MPs on the basis of a lack of action on climate change, amongst other policies.[3] The classification of "teal independent" derives from the colours used in Ryan's campaign, as well as referencing a political blend between Liberal (blue) and Green policies.[14][15][16] Ryan was previously a member of the Australian Labor Party between 2007 and 2010, a fact which led Frydenberg to characterise Ryan as a "fake independent".[17][18]
Ryan campaigned primarily on policies relating to climate change and anti-corruption.[3][19] The Morrison government consistently opposed a federal anti-corruption commission or federal version of New South Wales' Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), with prime minister Morrison describing ICAC as a "kangaroo court".[20] Ryan and other teals campaigned on their support of a federal ICAC, and Ryan specifically endorsing the ICAC model proposed by independent MP Helen Haines.[19][20]
Ryan's campaign was backed by Voices of Kooyong, an organisation established by former politics academic Ann Capling, and was reported to have 1500 volunteers and more than 2000 donors, as of April 2022.[3][21][22] The volunteer manager of Ryan's campaign was Rob Baillieu, son of former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu. Ted had previously campaigned for Frydenberg.[21] Volunteers from Ryan's campaign canvassed every household in the electorate.[21] 3700 individual donors contributed to her campaign, totalling A$1.84 million.[23] A$749,000 was provided by Climate 200, a climate advocacy organisation who contributed A$5.96 million combined to the campaigns of teal candidates.[23] Between January and March of 2022, Ryan's campaign spent A$86,700 on advertisements on Facebook, with Frydenberg's campaign spending $57,359 on competing advertising over the same period.[24] In total, Ryan's campaign spent A$2.122 million, and Frydenberg's spent around A$2 million.[23][21]
On 2 May, Frydenberg stated at a function that Ryan's mother-in-law had approached him in the street and stated she would vote for him.[25] Ryan initially stated that the anecdote was untrue, but later stated that it was true, and that it was inappropriate for family members to be drawn into the campaign.[26] On 5 May, Ryan and Frydenberg participated in a televised debate hosted by Sky News in Hawthorn Town Hall in front of a live audience.[27] During the debate, Ryan called Frydenberg the "Treasurer for New South Wales", a criticism of the federal government's approach to COVID-19 that was perceived to favour NSW over Victoria.[19] By 6 May, Ryan's campaign stated that it had issued more than 3000 corflutes and posters, enough for 1 in 25 houses in Kooyong.[28] In early May, the walls of a pub at Kew junction were painted with a mural depicting Ryan, but the painting was stopped on 13 May as the building owner had not given permission.[29]
Ryan won Kooyong at the 2022 election, receiving 52.9% of the two-candidate vote, defeating federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg.[30][31] Ryan indicated her first priority would be action on climate change.[32]
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See also: Sally Rugg § Dispute with Monique Ryan |
After winning the seat of Kooyong at the 2022 election, Ryan hired Sally Rugg as chief of staff. Disagreements emerged regarding Rugg's work hours and responsibilities. Further incidents later arose which Rugg alleged amounted to hostile conduct in the workplace.[33][34] In January 2023 Rugg resigned as chief of staff and a court application was lodged alleging a breach of FWA general protections.[35][34][36] Rugg claimed to have been forced to work excessive hours, and that Ryan had justified this by saying that she wished to be Prime Minister one day.[37] Ryan publicly disagreed with these statements, and stated she was joking about becoming prime minister.[33][38] After failures at mediation, the case looked to proceed to trial. An injunction for reinstatement by was denied by Justice Debra Mortimer. The case was anticipated by legal academics as potentially of precedent value for Australian employment law, with Ryan arguing that her court case with Sally Rugg demonstrated that the crossbench required more staff.[38][39] Staffing numbers for the crossbench had previously been reduced in June 2022.[40][41] On 8 May 2023 the dispute was resolved, with Rugg accepting a settlement of A$100,000 with no admission of fault, and all parties paying their own costs.[42][43]
In June 2022, Ryan reported incidents to the Australian Federal Police, in which her supporters had received letters containing threats and abuse.[44]
In June 2023, Ryan voiced her opposition to fracking projects in the Northern Territory, and endorsed a letter written by paediatricians that opposed fracking in the Beetaloo basin.[45] In response to criticism from Ryan and other crossbench members, the NT resource minister Natasha Fyles gave a speech at the National Press Club, characterising critics of the fracking projects as "teals and trolls".[46] The speech was further criticised by Ryan and independent senator David Pocock.[47]
Ryan has called for the release of Julian Assange from jail, and travelled to the United States in September 2023 with other politicians to lobby for his release, including Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce.[48][49]
Ryan supported the Yes campaign in the unsuccessful October 2023 referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and stated that she was proud that a majority of Kooyong voted Yes (60.68%).[50]
On 13 October 2023, Ryan attended a pro-Israel rally in Caulfield, Melbourne.[51] On 17 October 2023, Ryan voted in favour of a parliamentary resolution that condemned Hamas' attacks against Israel.[52] The Greens proposed an amendment to the resolution, adding a statement that parliament also condemns "war crimes perpetrated by the State of Israel, including the bombing of Palestinian civilians", which Ryan voted against.[52] Fellow teal independents Kylea Tink and Sophie Scamps voted in favour of the amendment, which was not successful. The resolution ultimately passed with the support of the government, opposition, and several crossbenchers.[53] On 3 November 2023, Ryan called for a "humanitarian pause" in the conflict, describing the "human suffering in Gaza" as "intolerable".[54] In response, the principal of a Jewish school in the electorate of Kooyong published an open letter criticising Ryan for not mentioning Israeli suffering in her statements.[55]
In October 2023, Ryan, along with crossbench MPs David Pocock and Dai Le, stated that she opposes the stage three tax cuts legislated by the Morrison government, scheduled to take effect in July 2024.[56][57][58] The stage three tax cuts predominantly benefit middle- to high-income earners.[58] Ryan stated that cancelling the tax cuts would allow for the doubling of funding for rent assistance.[58]
In October 2023, Ryan has stated her opposition to an electric vehicle tax legislated in Victoria, which was subsequently struck down by the High Court of Australia, and stated that there should fair application of road use charges to all vehicles.[59]
In November 2023, Ryan introduced a Private Member's Bill to the house entitled Lobbying (Improving Government Honesty and Trust) Bill 2023, and stated that the bill came from a need to "clean up politics" in Australia.[60] The bill was praised by the Human Rights Law Centre, who called it "the most ambitious proposal to regulate lobbying put before federal parliament in decades."[61]
In September 2023, Ryan and other MPs gave up their access to the Qantas "Chairman's Lounge", an exclusive area at Canberra airport, citing concerns that such access was a lobbying tool.[62]
In November 2023, Ryan called for a "mandatory compensation scheme" for passengers who have their flights cancelled without warning, and stated that Australian airlines were behaving as a "mafia of the skies".[63]
Ryan is a supporter of the Carlton Football Club, and lives in Hawthorn with her husband Peter, two step-children and a son.[2]
Select publications include the following:
