'I'll never forget it': Minister Tara Cheyne's romantic proposal

"My priorities are community, campaign and wedding - in that order," she said.

The Labor MLA for Ginninderra was proposed to by long-time partner, consultant James McMenamin, at a recent Gretta Ray gig in Wollongong.

The couple love her music, with many of her songs telling "the story of our relationship", Ms Cheyne said.

As the Australian singer finished her hit Cherish, she invited Mr McMenamin on stage where he proposed to Ms Cheyne.

"I'll never forget it," she said.

The couple first met at the Civic pub in 2018.

"A whole lot of football and other sports were on at the time," she remembered.

"James is quite tall and he was blocking the screen and the people I were sitting with got quite agitated and asked him to move."

She and McMenamin ended up chatting and stayed in touch.

During the 2021 lockdown, they started watching movies together, but apart - she in her Belco apartment, he in his digs in Kingston - and texted each other through the film.

They eventually moved in together and have been thinking about marriage for a while - even working together on the perfect ring by Canberra contemporary jeweller Phoebe Porter, in 18 carat gold and champagne diamonds.

Ms Cheyne called the ring "industrial pretty". "I wanted something that was not perfect but still had character and was interesting to look at," she said.

And Canberra's own Lucy Sugerman can be credited for helping Mr McMenamin pull off the romantic proposal.

She was the support act for Gretta Ray at the Wollongong gig and a friend of the couple contacted her to see if Lucy could be the go-between, helping Mr McMenamin get Gretta's permission to propose to Ms Cheyne on stage.

And the couple are eternally grateful to Lucy for her role in their romantic story.

"She did a wonderful job," Ms Cheyne said.

With the election looming, she says a wedding date and venue will be decided down the track.