Professor Katie Allen, who died last December aged 59, was a medical researcher, doctor, MP, mother of four and a member, as she put it, of the Cake and Eater Club.
While most knew her as a politician, the archipelago of her career across many fields was wide, deep and long, and has seen her posthumously appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), for service to paediatric allergy and gastroenterology research and for her service to people and federal parliament as the member for Higgins. She is one of 949 Australians recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours list.
“She was never someone to kind of let a barrier get in the way. She just stepped around it, and she had enormous self-confidence in her own self-belief,” her husband, management consultant Malcolm Allen said last week.
This resulted in her moving through different, daunting fields of scientific endeavour and ultimately, politics.
“She was at the zenith of her career in recent medical research and medicine, and she just decided … ‘I’m going to throw it all away, and I’m going to stand on a train station in my early 50s and hand out how to vote cards [and say] please vote for me.’ ”
Allen’s official honours citation runs to about 80 lines and mentions her writing or co-writing more than 423 peer-reviewed research articles and 15 book chapters. Some 100 conference proceedings are mentioned, and she also supervised more than 30 PhD students, mainly women.
She is one of 703 recipients of awards in the General Division of the Order of Australia on the honours list. They include five Companions of the Order of Australia (ACs, the highest award), 40 AOs,183 Members of the Order of Australia (AMs) and 475 Medals of the Order of Australia (OAMs). There are 34 recipients in the military division, and 149 meritorious awards and 63 conspicuous awards.
Other recipients include author Gerard Murnane, journalist Fran Kelly and former senator Natasha Stott Despoja.
Allen was born in 1966 and grew up in the Victoria-NSW border town of Albury. As a child she trailed her doctor father on his hospital rounds.
She was one of the most published scientists in Australia and led pioneering medical research, including in Chicago using stem cells to cultivate livers that could be transplanted into children, and the HealthNuts research project which she directed at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, which fundamentally changed understanding and treatment of children’s allergies.
She was the federal Liberal member for Higgins from 2018 to 2022, when she lost her seat to Labor. She stood for election again in 2025 in the seat of Chisholm, keeping her cancer diagnosis secret.
Allen announced she was suffering from cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the bile ducts after her defeat in the polls.
Malcolm Allen said his wife would tell other women that she was a member of the Cake and Eater Club, having a successful career in many fields while still raising their children: Monty, Jemima, Arabella and Archie.
“I’m in tears now,” said Malcolm Allen, saying they were happy tears. “I’m just sorry I’m not there to give her a big hug when the announcement’s made.”
Other award recipients included philanthropist Janet Calvert-Jones, 87, who was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for service to philanthropy, the arts, medical research organisations and to children and youth.
Calvert-Jones, who was chair of the Herald and Weekly Times from 1989 to 2009 and whose brother is media baron Rupert Murdoch, has supported institutions including the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and the State Library of Victoria.
“I’m deeply grateful and profoundly moved by this recognition and feel it’s more than I deserve,” she said.
Fran Kelly, the veteran ABC journalist and presenter of The Radio National Hour, receives an AO for distinguished services to broadcast journalism.
Kelly, who joined triple j in 1988, was also recognised for achievements in equality, social justice, and LGBTQ advocacy.
She found out about her honour via email eight weeks ago. “It was a total surprise. I hadn’t ever been expecting anything like this for doing a job that I love.”
She said she was thrilled that she and her team had been recognised for the work that they have done.
Kelly has worked in Canberra, been a foreign correspondent based in London, and presented Radio National Breakfast for 17 years.
“I have got an enormous amount out of the job,” she said, highlighting her time on Breakfast.
“Our mission was to create an agenda-setting program that had something in it for everyone to know what was going on in their state, their country and the world. I got an absolute everyday sense of fulfilment – and adrenaline that’s for sure.”
Kelly now hosts the weekday evening program The Radio National Hour. But not on this Monday. She is taking the day off and inviting over friends and colleagues from throughout her career. “Because I want to appreciate them too.”
Other recipients of King’s Birthday Honours this year have also made significant contributions within various fields.
Gerard Murnane, author of The Plains, a 1982 novel about a filmmaker who drifts across mysterious central plains seeking funding, receives an AO for distinguished services to literature and education.
Sid Myer, chair of Myer Family Investments and a former chair of the Zoos Victoria Foundation and the University of Melbourne Asialink centre, receives an AO for services to equality, arts and Asia-Australia relations.
Former South Australian Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja was appointed an AC for service to gender equity and the prevention of violence. She recently headed the South Australian royal commission into domestic violence and is a member of the United Nations committee on the elimination of discrimination against women.
Ro Allen, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner, was appointed an AM for service to the community through social reform and human rights advocacy.
This year, the gender balance of the awards improved by 5 per cent but still remained weighted towards males.
Governor-General Sam Mostyn said the imbalance would only change if more people nominated women for recognition.
“Every Australia regardless of their gender, social, cultural or economic background should be able to look at the honours List and see themselves,” Mostyn said.
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