Anne Ruston


Anne Sowerby Ruston is an Australian Liberal Party politician serving as Minister for Families and Social Services since 2019, and has served as Senator for South Australia since 2012.
She served as Assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific in the Morrison Government from August 2018 to May 2019, having previously been Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources in the Turnbull Government. She was appointed Minister for Families and Social Services in May 2019.

Early life

Ruston was born in Renmark, South Australia where she spent her early years before matriculating from Renmark High School. She graduated with a Bachelor of Business at the University of Southern Queensland.
In 1996, Ruston was appointed Chief Executive at the National Wine Centre until 2002, following which she became a commercial rose producer. From 2003 to 2015, she was the owner and managing director of Ruston's Roses, the largest rose garden in Australia.
Ruston is married to Richard Fewster with one son.

Politics

Ruston began her political career as an electorate officer for state Liberal Chaffey MP Peter Arnold. Upon the election of the Dean Brown Liberal government in 1993 she became a state Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister for Industrial Affairs and Tourism, Recreation, Sport and Racing.
Ruston became Vice-President of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia in 2011. In August 2012, Ruston was chosen by the federal Liberal Party of Australia and appointed by a joint sitting of the Parliament of South Australia on 5 September 2012 to fill the casual vacancy in the Senate created by the parliamentary resignation of Mary Jo Fisher. Ruston became Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources in the First Turnbull Ministry on 21 September 2015.
During 2017, when Cory Bernardi moved a motion to ban abortion on gender grounds, Ruston was one of the ten senators who voted in favour. The motion was defeated by a vote of 10 - 36.