The Australian Women's Register

Emma-Jane Davidson was born in the Southern Riverina Murray region of country New South Wales in 1974. She grew up on a farm near a small town west of Wagga and moved to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory after graduating from secondary school. She completed a Bachelor of General Studies at Griffith University in 2005.

Davidson was employed as a public servant at Centrelink (1993–2000) and has worked in private software development as a Project Manager for Wizard Computer Training (2000–2001) and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (2002–2003). She was Director of Information Management at Navy Systems Command (2003–2008) and has owned and managed a small retail business (2006–2012).

She has been employed in various project management, social research, and advocacy roles, including her work as Project Coordinator for the Equality Rights Alliance (2010–2012), Website Editor for the Australian Medical Association (2012-2014), Project Manager at Agileware Pty Ltd (2014–2016), and Deputy CEO of Women’s Centre for Health Matters (2017–2020).

Davidson is a Founding Member of the Friends of the Birth Centre Canberra (2007–2009) where she was convenor in 2009 and was President, Maternity Coalition ACT Branch (2008–2010). She is a former Pearce Community Centre Committee Member (2017–2020) and was Secretary (2013–2019), then Convenor (2019–2020), of the Women’s Electoral Lobby Australia. She has spoken at TEDxCanberra (2011) and TEDxAdelaide (2011) about the importance of listening to marginalised women and was Executive Producer of TEDxCanberra Women (2013–2015).

Davidson was elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly as a Member for Murrumbidgee in 2020, holding one of six Green party seats in the 10th Legislative Assembly. Her inaugural speech acknowledged her daughter Sophia, who inspired her to join the ACT Greens when she herself joined. Following her election, she was appointed a Minister in the Labor-Greens Government, holding the portfolios of Mental Health, Population Health, Corrections and Justice Health, and Community Services. She stood in the 2024 election but was not re-elected.

An active member of Canberra’s roller derby community before her involvement in politics, Davidson sometimes commutes to work by skateboard.