Jim Chalmers

James Edward Chalmers is an Australian politician who will be Australia’s 41st Treasurer from 23 May 2022, having served as Shadow Treasurer from 2019 to 2022. He has been a member of the House of Representatives and has represented the Rankin branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in Queensland since 2013.Chalmers was born in Brisbane, the youngest of three children born to Graham and Carol Chalmers. His father was a courier and his mother was a nurse.

He attended Catholic schools before attending Griffith University, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Communications. He went on to complete a PhD in political science at the Australian National University, writing his doctoral thesis on Prime Minister Paul Keating, entitled ‘Brawling politicians: Paul Keating and the leadership of Australia’s prime minister’. In March 2013, Chalmers married Laura Anderson, a journalist and writer who worked for Penny Wong and Julia Gillard. The couple have three children.