Sam Rae

Samuel Thomas Rae (born 29 September 1986) is an Australian politician and a member of the Australian House of Representatives for the new seat of Hawke. He was first elected at the 2022 Australian federal election. Prior to his election he was a state secretary for the Labor Party and a partner at PwC.

He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Melbourne Business School and a Bachelor of Science from the Australian National University.

Early life
Rae was born on 29 September 1986 in Canberra, the son of a public-school teacher.

He attended Fadden Primary School, Alfred Deakin High School and Narrabundah College. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the Australian National University, a graduate diploma in management and a Master of Business Administration from Melbourne Business School.

Career
When Rae first left school he worked as a factory labourer. Rae then worked several jobs including as call centre phone operator and childcare worker. After leaving ANU, he worked as a Policy Advisor for the National Association of Forest Industries and as an advisor to Senator Stephen Conroy.

Rae was Victorian Labor’s Director of Research and Tactics for the 2016 Federal Election campaign, and he was later appointed State Secretary and Campaign Director of Victorian Labor in 2016. Rae is credited for his leadership of Victorian Labor’s landslide 2018 state election campaign, which saw Labor win an additional 11 seats off the Liberal Party and the Greens.

Rae left Victorian Labor to join PwC as a Partner in their strategy and management consulting division, where he worked until his election to Parliament. He worked with public clients to develop and improve governance and financing models to maximise public value.

Politics
Rae was preselected for the newly established seat of Hawke in June 2021 by the Australian Labor Party. Rae was elected as the first Member for Hawke at the May 2022 Federal Election.

During the 2022 election campaign, as the Labor candidate for Hawke, Rae announced that an elected Labor Government would commit $10 million towards planning for the Western Freeway upgrade between Melton and Caroline Springs.

He currently serves on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters and the Joint Statutory Committee on Public Accounts and Audit.

Personal life
Rae lives in Ballan in his electorate of Hawke, with his partner Zoe and their three children.

Interjection Allegation
In March 2023, Rae was accused of interjecting during a Parliamentary contribution from the Member for Moncrieff Angie Bell.

Rae strenuously denied the accusation. The Member for Reid, Sally Sitou, and Member for Parramatta, Andrew Charlton – who were in the Chamber at the time of the incident – strongly supported Rae’s version of events.

On the ABC’s Insiders program that aired the weekend of the incident, contributor Nikki Savva noted “over the past few weeks, the Liberal party has been trying to construct a narrative of bullying by Labor MPs against Liberal women and often the claims that have been made have been misleading or exaggerated”.

Bell lodged a formal complaint about the incident to the Speaker, but no findings were made.