Biography

Parliamentary service

• Elected to the House of Representatives for Higgins, Victoria, 2019. Defeated at general elections 2022.

Committee service

• Joint Standing: National Broadband Network from 23.7.2019 to 11.4.2022; Parliamentary Library from 23.7.2019 to 11.4.2022; Trade and Investment Growth from 23.7.2019 to 11.4.2022.
• Joint Select: Implementation of the National Redress Scheme from 10.2.2020 to 11.4.2022.
• House of Representatives Standing: Communications and the Arts from 4.7.2019 to 11.4.2022; Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources from 4.7.2019 to 11.4.2022; Health, Aged Care and Sport from 17.9.2019 to 15.6.2020 (Supplementary member from 17.9.2019 to 15.6.2020); Health, Aged Care and Sport from 7.10.2020 to 25.11.2021 (Supplementary member from 7.10.2020 to 25.11.2021).

Party positions

• Liberal Party Candidate for Prahran from July 2017 to November 2018.
• Liberal Candidate for Higgins from 24.2.2018 to 18.5.2019.

Other positions

• Member of the Indigenous Australians Parliamentarians Working Group.
• Member of the National Health and Research Advisory Committee (NHRAC).

Personal

• Born 24.2.1966, Albury, Australia
• Married

Qualifications and occupation before entering Federal Parliament

• MBBS (Hons - First Class) (Monash University).
• BMedSc(Hons) (Monash University).
• FRACP (Royal Australasian College of Physicians).
• PhD (University of Melbourne).
• Medical researcher from 1996 to 2019.
• Paediatrician from 1998 to 2019.
• Consultant Paediatrician at the Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and Department of Gastroenterology and Clinical Nutrition from 1998 to 2019.
• Group Leader of the Population Allergy Research Group at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute from 2003 to 2019.
• University Professor from 2006 to 2019.
• Professorial Fellow (Honorary) at the Department of Paediatrics (University of Melbourne) at the Royal Children's Hospital from 2010 to 2019.
• Director of Population Health at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute from 2011 to 2019.
• Board member of the Australian Food Allergy Foundation from 2011 to 2019.
• Board member of the Raising Children Network at the Royal Children's Hospital from 2013 to 2019.
• Professorial Chair in Food Allergy at the School of Inflammation and Repair (University of Manchester) from 2013 to 2018.
• Director at the NHMRC-funded Centre of Research and Excellence at the Centre for Food and Allergy Research from 2014 to 2019.
• Chief Scientist at the Australian Food Allergy Foundation from 2016 to 2019.
• Scientific Advisory Board Member at Before Brands (US) from 2017 to 2019.
• Board member at Cabrini Health Ltd from 2017 to 2019.

Electorate

• Name: Higgins
• Location: The Division of Higgins consists of: part of the Boroondara City Council, part of the Glen Eira City Council, part of the Monash City Council, and part of the Stonnington City Council.
• Area: 41 Sq km
• Electors enrolled: 111,013 (at 7.6.2019)
• Industries: Retail, health care, food services and education.

Honours

• Recipient of the Genna Foundation Scholar Fellowship from 1995 to 1995.
• Recipient of the AMSA-AMA Summer Project Scholarship, 1998.
• Recipient of the Victorian Fellowship to the Chicago Children's Memorial Hospital from 1999 to 2000.
• Recipient of the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship, 2001.
• One of the 'Ten of the Best NHMRC funded health and medical research successes', 2005.
• Recipient of the Barry Young Servier Cardiovascular and Metabolic Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 2006.
• One of the 'Ten of the Best NHMRC funded health and medical research successes' for Career Development Award from 2006 to 2011. .
• NHMRC Career Development Award from 2006 to 2010.
• Rising Star Award by the MCRI for excellence in research achievement in 2007 for an outstanding researcher with less than 10 years postdoctoral experience, 2008.
• Senior Medical Research Fellowship of the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation from 2010 to 2014.
• Fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology from 2012 to 2019.
• Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Ltd from 2015 to 2019.

Publications

• Iron-overload-related Disease in HFE Hereditary Hemochromatosis (co-authored with L Gurrin, N Osborne, C Constantine, M Delatycki, A Nicoll, C McLaren, M Bahlo, A Nisselle, C Vulpe, G Anderson, G Giles, D English, J Hopper, J Olynyk, L Powell and D Gertig) in the New England Journal of Medicine, 2008.
• Can Early Introduction of Egg Prevent Egg Allergy in Infants? A Population-based Study (co-authored with J Koplin, N Osborne, M Wake, P Martin, L Gurrin, M Robinson, D Tey, M Slaa, L Thiele, L Miles, D Anderson, T Tan, T Dang, D Hill, A Lowe, M Matheson, A Ponsonby, M Tang and S Dharmage) in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2010.
• Food allergy: Riding the Second Wave of the Allergy Epidemic (co-authored with S Prescott) in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, 2011.
• Prevalence of Challenge-proven IgE-medicated Food Allergy Using Population-based Sampling and Predetermined Challenge Criteria in Infants (co-authored with N Osborne, J Koplin, P Martin, L Gurrin, A Lowe, M Matheson, A Ponsonby, M Wake, M Tang and S Dharmage) in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2011.
• The Epidemiology of Food Allergy (co-authored with J Koplin) in Food Allergy, Burks, James and Eigennman [eds], Elsevier, 2012.
• Increasing the Accuracy of Peanut Allergy Diagnosis Using Ara h2 (co-authored with T Dang, M Tang, S Choo, P Licciardi, J Koplin, P Martin, T Tan, L Gurrin, A Ponsonby, D Tey, M Robinson and S Dharmage) in the Journal of Allergy and CLinical Immunology, 2012.
• Kids Food Allergies for Dummies (co-authored with M Tang), John Wiley and Sons Australia, 2012.
• The Epidemiology of Anaphylaxis (co-authored with L Brown) in Anaphylaxis: Principles and Practices, M Thirumala Krishna [ed], Nova Science Publishers, 2013.
• Children's Food Allergy (co-authored with N Bertalli and B Maguire) in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children Annual Statistical Report 2012, 2013.
• Theories on the Increasing Prevalence of Food Allergy (co-authored with J Koplin) in Food Allergy: Adverse Reactions to Food and Food Additive, Metcalfe, Sampson, Simon and Lack [eds], 5th edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
• Prevalence, Triggers and Cross-reactivity (co-authored with L Shek) in Practical Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy, S Sicherer [ed], CRC Press, 2014.
• Early Introduction of Foods for Food Allergy Prevention (co-authored with J Koplin) in Current Treatment Options in Allergy, M Fernandez-Rivas [ed], Springer International Publishing, 2014.
• Establishment of Reference of Doses for Residues of Allergic Foods: Report of the VITAL Expert Panel (co-authored with S Taylor, J Baumert, A Kruizinga, B Remington, W Rene, R Crevel, S Brooke-Taylor, G Houben) in the Food and Chemical Toxicology, 2014.
• Antiallergic Strategies: Induction of Tolerance to Food (co-authored with G Lack, A Santos and M Penagos), in Allergy, Immunity and Tolerance in Early Childhood: the First Steps of the Atopic March, H Sampson and U Wahn [eds], Elsevier, 2015.
• Prevention and Natural History of Food Allergy (co-authored with S Prescott) in Pediatric Allergy: Principles and Practice, H Sampson [ed], 3rd edition, 2015.
• Gut Microbiota as Therapy; The Gut Microbiota and Inflammatory Noncommunicable Diseases; Associations and Potentials for Gut Microbiota Therapies (co-authored with C West, H Renz, M Jenmalm, A Kozyrskij, P Vuillermin and S Prescott), in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2015.
• Prospects for Prevention of Food Allergy (co-authored with J Koplin) in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology - In Practice, 2016.
• Finding a Path to Safety in Food Allergy: Assessment of the Global Burden, Causes, Treatment, Prevention, Management and Public Policy (co-authored as a member of the Committee on Food Allergies: Global Burden, Causes, Treatment, Prevention, and Public Policy), The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2017.
• Food Allergy (co-authored with H Renz, S Sicherer, H Sampson, G Lack, K Beyer and H Oettgen) in Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 2018.
• Reconciling Breastfeeding and Early Food Introduction Guidelines in the Prevention and Management of Food Allergy (co-authored with M Netting) in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2018.
• What Can Urban/Rural Differences in Food Allergy Prevalence Tell Us About the Drivers of Food Allergy? (co-authored with J Koplin) in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2018.