Jenny Aitchison

Jennifer Kathleen Aitchison is an Australian politician who has served as Minister for Roads and Minister for Regional Transport in the Minns ministry since 2025. She previously served as Minister for Regional Transport and Roads from 2023 to 2025. She is a member of the Labor Party.

She has served in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the member for Maitland since the 2015 New South Wales state election. Before her election, Aitchison worked as a managing director of tourism and hospitality companies.

Early years and background Aitchison was born in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, born to Jim and Anne O'Connor, a library officer in the Commonwealth Public Service and also one of the first women to receive paid maternity leave for the birth of Jenny. Aitchison, at around about eight years old, started to follow in her mother's footsteps and commenced working at her local library as a volunteer.

In 1985, during the first International Year of Youth, Aitchison was selected to represent her school on an interschool newspaper, which is where she later said was "the start of my activism".

Early career At 21 years of age, in 1992, Aitchison joined the Australian Labor Party and later that year joined the Commonwealth Public Service (CPS) in the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, an experience where she has later said was "sad yet ultimately hopeful [hearing the] stories of the many thousands of people who had unsuccessfully applied to come to Australia as refugees or migrants. I read with a sense of deep shame and embarrassment a question from an overseas school student to the Minister, asking if it was really true that Australia had once had a policy that we would only let people with white skin into Australia". Aitchison then moved into the Social Justice Coordination Section, responsibilities here included drafting the department's Agenda for Women and consultations around Australia, in addition to hearing firsthand the stories of many refugee and migrant women.

2019: re-election and (Shadow) Minister for Regional Transport and Roads At the 2019 New South Wales election, Aitchison was re-elected with a first preference vote increase of +1.79 points, but the overall two-party vote suffered a small swing of −0.62 points against her this was likely due to 8 candidates contesting the seat. During the 2019 ALP NSW Leadership contest, Aitchison supported new leader Jodi McKay and following the shadow ministry reshuffle was promoted to Shadow Minister for Investment and Tourism, Medical Research, and Primary Industries.

2023: Minister for Regional Transport and Roads In March 2023, the Minns Labor Government took office. Aitchison retained the regional transport and roads portfolio.

2025: Minister for Roads and Minister for Regional Transport On 17 March 2025, Aitchison was sworn in as Minister for Roads and Minister for Regional Transport.

Personal life In 1997, Aitchison met her husband, Robert, and relocated to Walcha, a small town in the New England Tableland. In 1999, her family was honoured with an Australia Day award for their contribution to tourism in Walcha. The following year, in 2000, Aitchison moved to Maitland with six-week-old son Joshua.