Representative Stephen Jones Contact information

Stephen Patrick Jones is an Australian politician who has been the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services of the Australian Labor Party since May 2022. He is currently representing the Division of Whitlam, which was previously known as Throsby. Jones was elected to the Australian House of Representatives in the 2010 federal election.

Jones grew up in Wollongong, New South Wales, and has four siblings. His father worked as a TAFE teacher, and his mother was a school assistant. Jones went to St Brigid’s Primary School in Gwynneville, New South Wales, and Edmund Rice College in Wollongong, where he was School Captain and Dux. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Politics from the University of Wollongong and a Bachelor of Laws from Macquarie University.

Jones started his career as a youth advocate in Campbelltown, New South Wales, working mainly with children who had developmental disabilities, and later with adults suffering from spinal cord injuries. Jones joined the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) in 1993 and worked in various roles, including NSW branch secretary and secretary of the Communications Division. In 2004, he was seconded to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), where he worked to secure compensation for victims of James Hardie asbestos-related disease. He became the national secretary of the CPSU in 2005 and led the union’s campaign against the Howard government’s WorkChoices industrial laws in the lead up to the 2007 Australian federal election.

Jones gained preselection for the seat of Throsby in late 2009 and became the Labor candidate following the resignation of former member Jennie George. He won the seat at the 2010 federal election. In the 43rd Parliament, Jones served as a member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, the Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications, and the Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform. Jones was re-elected for a second term in the 2013 Australian federal election and was appointed shadow parliamentary secretary for Infrastructure and Regional Development.

Jones was re-elected for a third term in the 2016 Australian federal election, after the Division of Throsby was renamed the Division of Whitlam. He was re-elected again in the 2019 and 2022 federal elections, becoming the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services for the incoming Albanese Government. As a co-convenor of Labor’s left faction in the federal parliamentary Labor Party, Jones has spoken on several issues of importance to the progressive political agenda, including same-sex marriage, asylum seekers, introducing a carbon price, and other environmental issues.