Daniel Mulino

Biography

Daniel Mulino is an accomplished Australian politician and economist. Born in Brindisi, Italy in 1969, he immigrated to Australia with his parents at the young age of 18 months. Growing up, he spent much of his childhood in Canberra, where he attended Marist College and met his future friend and fellow Federal Parliament member, David Smith.

After completing year 7 at the selective James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney, Mulino returned to Canberra and earned bachelor degrees in law and arts. It was during this time that he developed an interest in economics, which eventually led him to complete a Masters of Economics at the University of Sydney.

Following his studies, Mulino was accepted into Yale University, where he earned a PhD in economics with a thesis on “The impact of an aging society on capital deepening and international factor flows.” He went on to teach economics at both Yale and Monash University in Melbourne, becoming one of ten MPs in the 47th Parliament of Australia who possesses a PhD.

Throughout his career, Mulino has focused on economic policy, working at the Commonwealth Department of Finance and the Attorney-General’s Department, and serving as an adviser to Senator Jacinta Collins, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks, and Victorian Treasurer John Lenders. He also worked as an economic adviser to financial services minister Bill Shorten in the Rudd-Gillard governments, where he helped to implement reforms to flood insurance and mitigation strategies in Queensland.

In addition to his work in economics, Mulino has also been active in politics. He served as a councillor, deputy mayor, and acting mayor at the City of Casey, before being elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Eastern Victoria in 2014. During his time in office, he served as Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury and Finance in the first Andrews Ministry. He retired prior to the state election of 2018 to run for a Federal seat, winning pre-selection for the Labor Party in the new House of Representatives seat of Fraser.

In the 2019 federal election, Mulino won his seat despite a nominal 5.61% swing against Labor, achieving a two-party-preferred margin of 14.18%. He was re-elected in the 2022 Australian federal election, winning 66.5% of the two-party preferred vote in his seat. With Labor now in government, Mulino was appointed to chair the Standing Committee on Economics, which provides oversight to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Outside of politics, Mulino won the best speaker award at the World University Debating Championships in 1993 in Oxford. He is married to Sarah, whom he met while volunteering for the Labor Party, and together they are raising a daughter. Mulino describes himself as a lapsed Catholic.