Kristina Kerscher Keneally is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for New South Wales since February 2018. She representing the Labour Party. She has served as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, and Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. Previously, she served as Premier of New South Wales from 2009 to 2011, the first woman to hold the position.
Kristina Keneally is famous for an Australian politician. After marrying an Australian, Ben Keneally, she settled in Australia permanently and became a naturalized citizen in 2000. She was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Heffron at the 2003 state election, succeeding Deidre Grusovin after a controversial preselection process. After being re-elected to parliament at the 2007 state election, she became the Minister for Ageing and Disability Services and was subsequently appointed Minister for Planning by Premier Nathan Rees in 2008. She was also the state governments spokeswoman for World Youth Day 2008. In 2009, she had emerged as the preferred leadership candidate of the Labour Right faction, and defeated incumbent Premier Nathan Rees in a party room Ballot, winning by 47 votes to 21. The Keneally Government went on to suffer a 16.5% swing statewide at the 2011 state election, the biggest swing in Australia political history. She was replaced as leader of the Labor Party by John Robertson, who was elected unopposed, on March 31, 2011. She resigned from Parliament in June 2012. She joined Sky News Live as a political commentator, later becoming co-host of To The Point in 2014. She took leave in November 2017 to stand as the Labor candidate for the Bennelong by-election, which she lost to the previous member John Alexander. She was instead appointed to the Senate to fill a casual vacancy caused by Sam Dastyari's resignation. After the 2019 leadership election, she was selected as deputy Senate leader in the shadow cabinet of new labor leader Anthony Albanese. She was subsequently announced as the new deputy Senate leader, Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.
Kristina Keneally was born on December 19, 1968, in Las Vegas, Nevada. She holds American/Australian nationality. Her birth sign is Sagittarius. She was born to an American father and an Australian mother. She lived in Colorado but grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She attended high school at Notre Dame Academy. She was twice awarded the most valuable player in the Academy's soccer team. Upon graduating from Notre Dame, she undertook studies at the University of Dayton also in Ohio. She became involved in student politics and was involved in founding the National Association of Students at Catholic College and Universities, serving as president of the group in 1990 and 1991. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1991 was a registered Democrat and worked as an intern for the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, Paul Leonard. She graduated with a Master of Arts in religious studies. Later, she studied at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After graduating from the University of Dayton she worked for a year as a volunteer teacher in New Mexico.
Kristina Keneally is a married woman. She married Ben Keneally, former Mayor of Botany Bay. The couple has two sons. A daughter died at birth. Her husband is the nephew of Australian writer Thomas Keneally. He is the patron of the Stillbirth Foundation Australia.
There is no information about her net worth and salary but Kristina and her husband, they own a $1.8 million holiday home on the isolated Scotland Island on the Northern Beaches of Sydney and a townhouse in Wollstonecraft purchased for $1.3 million in 2016.