Alan Tudge is an Australian politician who was born on February 24, 1971. He is a member of the Liberal Party and has served in the House of Representatives since 2010. In 2010, he was elected to the federal parliament representing the seat of Aston in Victoria.

Tudge grew up in Pakenham, Victoria and worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group before joining the Cape York Institute as a deputy director.

After the 2013 election, Tudge became a parliamentary secretary and held several cabinet positions under Prime Ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison from 2016 to 2022.

Age – Date of Birth

Alan Tudge is an Australian politician who was born on February 24, 1971, he is currently at the age of 52 years old this year 2023. He will be 53 years old next year 2024.

Hometown

He was born in Pakenham, Victoria, Australia. Pakenham is a neighborhood located in Melbourne, Australia. It is located 53 km southeast of the busy central business district of Melbourne and is the largest city in the area known as the Shire of Cardinia.

Wife – Marital Life

Alan Tudge, a well-known political figure, was previously in a relationship with Teri Etchells. The couple had a 20-year long relationship and were blessed with three children.

However, their relationship came to an end in the year 2017, which was a year after the birth of their third child. The reason for their separation was due to Alan Tudge’s extramarital affair.

It’s important to note that relationships and marriages can sometimes come to an end for various reasons, regardless of the length of time they have been together.

In this case, Alan Tudge’s infidelity was the cause for the end of his relationship with Teri Etchells. While this may have been a difficult time for both parties involved, it’s not uncommon for individuals to move on and find happiness in new relationships.

Family – Parents

Alan Tudge was born to his parents who were both veterinarians and had met at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He was born with dual citizenship from Britain but renounced it prior to running for parliament in 2010.

His mother was born in Scotland, his father in England, and his maternal grandfather was born in Canada. Tudge’s parents separated when he was around six years old, and he was raised by his mother on a small farm near Pakenham.

Education Background

He attended a local primary school before going to Haileybury in Melbourne for secondary education and graduated in 1988. Tudge then went on to the University of Melbourne where he received a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) degree.

During his time at the university, he served as president of the Melbourne University Student Union, the first time in many years a non-Left president had won the position. Tudge later obtained an MBA from Harvard University.

Professional Background

Tudge is one of seven Liberal MPs in the 46th Parliament of Australia who have obtained degrees from Oxbridge or Ivy League universities, including Josh Frydenberg, Angus Taylor, Andrew Laming, Dave Sharma, Greg Hunt, and Paul Fletcher.

Before entering politics, Tudge worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and was a deputy director at the Cape York Institute. Alan Tudge is a politician who started his career in Melbourne and later moved to New York.

He completed his Master of Business Administration at Harvard University during this time. He was also given the opportunity to work at the Cape York Institute through Jawun, as the organization’s first corporate secondee.

In 2002, Alan became a senior adviser to the federal education minister Brendan Nelson. He also worked for the foreign minister Alexander Downer. Alan returned to the Cape York Institute as deputy director from 2006 to 2009.

He was also a founding board member of Teach for Australia, established in 2009 by his former colleague Melodie Potts Rosevear. After that, he ran his own policy advisory firm until he was elected to parliament.

Early Career

He served as Minister for Human Services, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, and Education and Youth.

In 2021, Tudge took a leave of absence from his ministerial position following allegations of bullying and an extramarital affair with a former staffer.

Following the Coalition’s loss in the 2022 election, Tudge was appointed to Peter Dutton’s shadow cabinet. However, on February 10, 2023, he announced his resignation from federal politics.

Political Career

Alan Tudge is a politician who has been a member of the Liberal Party since 2002. He was the convenor of the Education Policy Forum of the party and won pre-selection for the Division of Aston in 2009.

He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Aston in the 2010 federal election. Tudge is a member of the National Right faction of the Liberal Party.

In 2013, Tudge was appointed as a parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Tony Abbott and continued to serve in the government even after the leadership change from Abbott to Malcolm Turnbull.

He served as the Minister for Human Services and later as the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs in the Turnbull government. During the 2018 Liberal leadership spill, he tendered his resignation, but it was not immediately accepted.

In the Morrison government, Tudge served as the Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population and was elevated to the cabinet after the 2019 election.

He also served as the acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs. In December 2020, he was appointed as the Minister for Education and Youth.

In the 2022 Australian federal election, Tudge was voted out of government, but he still managed to hold on to his seat by a narrow margin.

After the election, he was named as the Shadow Minister of Education in the shadow cabinet, but he is currently exiled due to the ongoing inquiry into the Robodebt scheme.

Net Worth

Tudge is considered to be a millionaire because his estimated net worth is around $5 million.

Controversies

In June 2017, Alan Tudge, a member of the Liberal Party, was faced with the possibility of being prosecuted for contempt of court.

He, along with colleagues Greg Hunt and Michael Sukkar, had made public statements criticizing the sentencing decisions of two senior judges while the government was awaiting their ruling on a related appeal.

Eventually, they avoided prosecution by making an unconditional apology to the Victorian Court of Appeal. If convicted, they could have been expelled from the parliament and the government would have lost its one-seat majority in the House of Representatives.

Federal Court Controversy

In March 2020, Tudge, who was the Acting Immigration Minister at the time, appealed against a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to grant a temporary protection visa to an Afghan asylum seeker who had previously been a part of the Afghan National Army.

Despite the appeal failing, the asylum seeker was kept in a detention center during the 6-day appeal process. Six months later, the Federal Court found that Tudge had “engaged in conduct which can only be described as criminal” and had deprived the asylum seeker of his liberty.

This prompted calls for Tudge’s resignation. However, the decision was set aside on appeal and referred back to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Affair and Bullying Allegations

In November 2020, Tudge’s former press secretary Rachelle Miller revealed that they had engaged in an affair and that it had led to the end of Tudge’s marriage.

Miller also accused Tudge of bullying and intimidation, claiming that he often asked her to go to dinner or drinks and that she felt like she couldn’t say no because he was her boss.

After further allegations of abuse by Miller in December 2021, Tudge stood aside from the ministry while the claims were investigated.

The review cleared Tudge of breaking any rules, but he decided not to return to the cabinet and said he would resign formally as a minister.

He claimed that the decision was “in the interests of his family and his own well-being and in order to focus on his re-election as the Member for Aston.”

However, it was confirmed in April 2022 that Tudge had retained his ministerial title but was officially “on leave.”