James McGrath always had a passion for politics. Mr McGrath went on to study Law at Griffith University and was elected President of the Griffith University Liberal Club. He also chaired the Sunshine Coast Branch of the Young Liberals.
After working as a solicitor for three years, Mr McGrath quit the legal profession to work in politics. He was elected to the Australian Senate, representing the state of Queensland for the Liberal National Party at the 2013 federal election. He served as an Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister in the Turnbull Ministry from September 2015 to August 2018, and Assistant Minister to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection from February to July 2016.
Mr McGrath is a former political strategist and advisor to the former Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and the Deputy Federal Director of the Liberal Party of Australia. Between 2010 and 2012, he was the campaign director for the Liberal National Party and the Country Liberal Party. Having originally supported and campaigned for Malcolm Turnbull in the 2015 leadership spill, Mr McGrath flipped sides in 2018 and openly rebelled against the Prime Minister. Consequently, he was forced to resign from his executive position in August 2018.
In June 2022, following the Liberal Party's defeat at the federal election, Mr McGrath became the Assistant Shadow Minister for Finance, and Assistant Minister to the Opposition Leader in the Dutton shadow ministry.
