Allison Maree Ritchie (born 28 July 1974) is an Australian politician who currently serves as Deputy Mayor of City of Clarence.
Coming form a family with strong political connections (an aunt, Carol Brown, is a federal senator and a great uncle was a state president of the ALP) Ritchie joined the Labor Party at age 14.
On 24 November 2001, Ritchie became the first MP to marry for the first time while in office with her marriage to husband, David Cowle.
A review by the Auditor-General found that no formal rules had been broken but that "the recommendation of her mother’s appointment, in the knowledge of a flawed assessment process, was not in accordance with the principles of openness and objectivity outlined in the Code of Conduct.
"[2] Ritchie stepped down as Minister due to ill health (understood to be the diagnosis of an auto immune disease) on 24 November 2008 and resigned from Parliament entirely on 20 June 2009.