ParliamentPapers

Senate

Anne Ruston

Anne Ruston is a Liberal Party of Australia senator for South Australia. First elected 5 September 2012.

2012 Entered federal parliament
2015 Became agriculture assistant minister
2016 Won Senate election
2018 Took Pacific development role
2019 Became families minister
2021 Added women’s safety portfolio
2022 Left government ministry
2022 Became shadow health minister
2012 May 2026
  1. 2012 Entered federal parliament
  2. 2015 Became agriculture assistant minister
  3. 2016 Won Senate election
  4. 2018 Took Pacific development role
  5. 2019 Became families minister
  6. 2021 Added women’s safety portfolio
  7. 2022 Left government ministry
  8. 2022 Became shadow health minister
  • Liberal Party of Australia

What do they focus on?

Not enough tracked speeches or amendments to say yet.

  • Health, care & disability 54
  • Welfare & housing 16
  • Budget, tax & economy 12
  • Law, justice & rights 3
  • Government & democracy 3

Bars show tracked speeches and amendments by policy area.

How do they vote?

Share of recorded votes on the same side as each party's majority.

  • Coalition 99%
  • One Nation 80%
  • Labor 40%
  • Greens 15%

671 tracked votes while with Liberal.

How do they compare?

  • Years in parliament i Total time served across every stint in either chamber, up to the end of the tracked record. 13.8 yrs 0.2 avg 8.5 yrs 33.3
  • Votes against their party i Recorded votes cast against their own party's majority side. The average is across party members only. 0 avg 0.6 26
  • Bills introduced i Bills they introduced to Parliament, counted across the tracked record. 0 avg 2.8 46
  • Amendments sponsored i Amendments to bills they put forward during debate, counted across the tracked record. 52 avg 7.9 226
Where their votes sit, left to right i Built from votes alone: party members sit at their party's mark and move only by votes cast against their own party toward a neighbouring one. Independents are placed by their side on the votes where the parties disagreed.
Anne Greens Labor Coalition One Nation

The marker starts at their party’s position and shifts only for floor-crossings towards a neighbouring party. No topic strip is shown because their economic, social and environment votes followed the party line.

What have they done lately?

By 2 July 2026, Ruston supported restoring human override in aged-care assessments, saying qualified assessors should be able to challenge algorithmic recommendations. On 1 July, she supported nurse prescribing of PBS medicines and voted Aye on amendments extending subsidised prescribing to podiatrists. On 25 June, she voted Aye on indexing income-tax brackets, but the call was defeated 24–30. On 1 April, she supported technical social-security changes while voting No on three specific amendments about urgent payments and the remote area allowance.

When do they vote against their party?

Anne recorded no votes against the Liberal position across 671 recorded votes.

What do they say in debate?

54 tracked speeches across 53 bills.

  • 35 backing a bill
  • 5 with reservations
  • 12 against
  • 2 no clear position

About these numbers

Based on 766 tracked bills from the 47th and 48th Parliaments, current to 6 July 2026. This is a sample of parliamentary activity, not the complete record.

Career markers come from dated public records. Voting figures use division lists only. For party members, the left-to-right marker begins at the party position. It moves only when the member votes against that party and on the same side as a neighbouring party; other cross-party combinations do not affect it. Independents and minor-party members are placed by their votes in divisions where the Greens and the Coalition took opposite sides. If this position differs from a member’s broader public politics, a note appears below the strip.