While in parliament, both as a member of the government and the opposition, Burke campaigned against offshore processing and mandatory detention of refugees, policies all of the major parties supported at the time.
[2] Burke attended Presentation College, Windsor,[2][3] and was diagnosed with dyslexia in grade 5, which led to her taking her high-school exams orally.
[8] In 2005, Anna Burke submitted a private member's bill to the house that proposed an early form of the subsequently created Do Not Call Register, which allows people with fixed telephone lines to opt out from telemarketing.
[3] In February 2008, just a few sitting days into the Parliament, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was absent from the House while he was visiting flood victims in Mackay, Queensland.
[15] In response, the Manager of Opposition Business Christopher Pyne nominated a number of government members to become Speaker, starting with Burke.
[3] In April 2012, Slipper announced he was standing aside, meaning he would remain Speaker but would not attend sessions of the House until fraud allegations made against him were resolved.
[19] Later that evening, Burke was nominated and elected the new Speaker of the House of Representatives unopposed, becoming the second woman to hold the position after Joan Child.
[25][26] In May 2012, Labor-turned-independent Member of Parliament Craig Thomson, who was embattled with the Health Services Union expenses affair, unexpectedly sided with the Opposition during a parliamentary division.
To avoid accepting the "tainted vote" of Thomson, several Opposition members, including the leader Tony Abbott, ran for the doors.
[29] In August 2012, Burke invoked Standing Order 94A to eject Abbott from the House for one hour for refusing to withdraw a statement "without qualification".
[31] In August 2013, Burke's Melbourne electorate office was vandalised with graffiti that said "fre [sic] the refugees" and the windows were smashed in protest of the federal government's policy on asylum seekers.
[36][37] In 2014, Burke appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) panel show Q+A, which was disrupted by protesters unfurling a banner and voicing criticism of education minister Christopher Pyne.
[39] She was replaced as the Member for Chisholm by Liberal MP Julia Banks,[40] who was the only Liberal–National Coalition candidate to win a seat held by an opposition party in 2016.
[44] In 2024, Burke was the lead decision-maker on a case involving a New Zealand-born man referred to as CHCY, who had his visa cancelled due to being convicted for child sexual abuse.
[46] Together with fellow Labor parliamentarian Melissa Parke, Burke tabled a motion at ALP caucus in 2014 to cease the transfer of asylum seekers to Manus Island and Nauru, and to close the detention centres there.
[56] In 2014, Burke proposed the creation of a National Allergen register,[56] and in 2015, she established the Parliamentary Allergy Alliance in cooperation with Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale and ALP MP Tony Zappia.