Minister Katy Gallagher was pregnant and waiting for her fiancé at the beach. He would never arrive.

At 27 years old, Katy Gallagher found herself sitting in a doctor's office in the midst of the deepest depression of her life. Her fiancé, Brett, had just been killed in a cycling accident by a driver with a restricted licence while she was pregnant with their daughter.

Grief consumed her world.

"I stopped eating, I stopped drinking, I stopped communicating with anyone," she told Mamamia's Kate Langbroek on No Filter.

Her support system waited by her door, but Gallagher couldn't bring herself to let them in.

As her due date approached, and she showed no signs of getting better, she ended up hospitalised and dehydrated.

"I ended up only being let out if I agreed to see a psychiatrist," she said.

It wasn't until a doctor delivered a harsh truth that she realised she needed to make a change.

"You're going to have to snap out of it. In two months' time baby will come… and you have to look after this baby, and you can't look after yourself," they said.

"It was that doctor speaking very bluntly to me that made me kind of go, I have to get my s*** together, this is real," Gallagher recalled.

Nearly three decades later, Gallagher is today responsible for policies that help millions of Australian women as Minister for Women, Finance and the Public Service — one of the most powerful positions in the Albanese government.

Listen to Minister Katy Gallagher on Grief, Power, and the Moment Her Life Changed Forever. Post continues below.

When Gallagher joined the Labor Party, she only ever intended to be a member. As a disability community worker, she wanted to be a part of a government she believed was "changing people's lives" with its Disability Discrimination Act. Brett was an active member and, together, they were rising in the ranks.

Their life together was cut short during a weekend away.

"The first morning we were there, we arranged to meet at the beach. He would finish his ride and have a swim. I would wait (for) him at the beach, and he just never showed up," Gallagher said.

"I turned on the local radio station. I heard on the radio that the police were looking for the relatives of a cyclist who'd been killed earlier that morning, and that's how I found out."

It's been almost 29 years, and still the memories are just as strong.

Gallagher was 14 weeks pregnant — something she and Brett had been celebrating with friends and family.

"I sunk into a very deep depression," she said.

"I couldn't confront what was going on, like I just felt so sideswiped."

Gallagher never planned to get into politics when she joined the Labor party. Image: Getty.

Ultimately, it was giving birth to Abby that helped her find a light, along with therapy and antidepressants.

"The minute the baby came out, everything went up," she said.

"I had this amazing thing, and she was precious, not just to me, but to Brett's family, to my family.

"And even though it's a lot to ask a little baby to do, she did a lot of healing without knowing."

When she reintegrated back into society, it was the support of the local Labor Party that encouraged her into politics.

Labor needed more women candidates and colleagues encouraged her to run. Out of the eight women who stood as candidates in the territory election, two were elected. Gallagher was one of them.

"I realised also that if we wanted more women elected, women had to put their hand up in the first place, otherwise it wasn't going to change," she said.

Politics led to love again — she met Dave through their beagles.

"I know it was pretty tragic, isn't it? … It was just like, 'Oh, so you've got a beagle. I've got a beagle. Let's get the beagles together'."

Not only did their dogs get along, Abby welcomed Dave with open arms.

"I found him and I've kept him."

They've since bought a house together and welcomed two children, Charlie and Evie.

When Kate Lundy retired in 2014, Gallagher, who had risen to become ACT's chief minister, received a tap on the shoulder to join federal politics.

"Anthony rang me. Bill Shorten rang me. Penny Wong rang me... And when you get those people ringing you, saying, 'Please consider coming up here, we want you to join our team', you think about it," she said.

"Tony Abbott had come in and… he was wanting to make cuts to health and education and things like that, which I felt, as a former leader of a jurisdiction, I knew what that meant to schools and hospitals."

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher. Image: Getty.

The work that can't wait.

Gallagher is at the helm of two key portfolios, finance and women — a move she believes has elevated women's issues.

"What Anthony, the prime minister, did with that appointment was he lifted women into the centre of government decision-making," she said.

"It put an economic focus on gender equality for the first time... It wasn't a social focus. It wasn't about giving us extra support. It was about, right, how do we drive equality? Through work, through child care, through health, through paid parental leave."

But it's in addressing Australia's domestic violence crisis that the gap between ambition and reality feels most urgent.

On average, one woman is killed every nine days by a current or former partner in Australia. Intimate partner violence contributes to more death, disability and illness in women aged 25 to 44 than any other preventable risk factor, according to Our Watch.

"I'm always asked if there's one thing you could change for women, what is it? And I said, if I had a magic wand and I could remove violence from women and children's lives, that is what I would do," Gallagher said.

"Because I think that single thing would then have benefits across the board — education, skills, jobs, health, savings, assets."

Gallagher and her daughter Evie greet voters at the 2025 federal election. Image: Getty.

It's a responsibility Gallagher doesn't take lightly, acknowledging both the power of her position and the limitations of what the government alone can achieve.

"Part of what we're trying to do, we've got, obviously, a specific focus on ending violence against women and children in a generation," Gallagher said.

Gallagher pointed to the government's $4 billion investment in domestic violence services and women's economic security measures.

"All of that is about trying, ultimately, to get women in a better position so… those that are affected by violence might have a bit more of a leg to stand on for themselves," she said.

Yet domestic violence services across Australia continue to report being stretched beyond capacity, with many forced to turn away women seeking help.

Asked what she wants to achieve by the end of this political term, Gallagher's answer came back to addressing domestic violence.

While she would like to see a reduction in domestic and family violence, she admitted it's hard to measure.

The path forward, Gallagher believes, requires bringing everyone to the table. Image: Getty

The challenge is complex — as more women report violence, statistics can appear to worsen even as the underlying reality improves, Gallagher said.

"I'd like to see that change, but I've also been around long enough to know that in the short term, affecting that change means some of those numbers might look worse," she said.

The path forward, Gallagher believes, requires bringing everyone to the table.

"How we involve men in discussions about building the world that we want and building the society we want… because that actually means that men and women are treated equally."

It's about creating a world where opportunity isn't determined by gender.

"So that a girl leaving primary school tomorrow thinks all those jobs are available to her, not just some of the jobs, and the same for the young boys," Gallagher said.

"We can't do it on our own. We shouldn't do it on our own. That's not the world we want to create."

Feature image: Getty.