Australia's new youngest senator elected at 21 with unexpected win
A woman who turned 21 on the day of Australia's federal election in May has been declared the nation's youngest ever senator.
And like many female candidates who run for election in Australia, Charlotte Walker wasn't expected to win.
The former union official won the governing center-left Labour Party's third Senate seat for South Australia state in a complicated rank order voting system. A party's third choice rarely wins.
She had the lowest vote count of the six newly elected senators for the state. The Australian Electoral Commission officially declared the poll Tuesday.
The new job will be a 'big adjustment,' said Walker, who starts her six-year term July 1. A federal lawmaker's base salary is more than 205,000 Australian dollars ($133,000) annually.
'There's a few feelings. Obviously, there's a lot of pressure,' Walker told Australian Broadcasting Corp. after the results were announced late Monday.
'I want to do a good job for South Australians, but I also want to show young people, particularly young women, that this is achievable and this is something that they can do also. I'm also really excited. Not many people my age get to … go to Canberra and have the ability to contribute in the way that I will,' she added.
Previous young lawmakers
Before Walker, the youngest senator was Jordon Steele-John of the Greens party, who was elected for Western Australia state in 2017 at the age of 23.
Australia's youngest-ever federal lawmaker was Wyatt Roy, who was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010 at the age of 20. He lasted two three-year terms before he was voted out of his Queensland state seat.
Large swings at elections as occurred May 3 typically bring a larger proportion of women into the Parliament in seats that their parties hadn't realistically expected to win. Often the newcomers lose their seats when votes swing back at the next election.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expects 57 percent of Labor lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives will be women when the new Parliament first sits on July 22. The proportion of women was 52 percent during Albanese's first term in government.
Australian governments usually lose seats in their second term. Albanese leads the first federal government not to lose a single seat at an election since 1966. Labor is expected to hold 94 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, up from 78 in the last Parliament.
Australian National University political historian Frank Bongiorno said unexpected swings can put women candidates into Parliament after seeking apparently unwinnable seats .
But Bongiorno said Labor had been working on increasing women's representation since the party introduced a quota in 1994 that stated 35 percent of candidates in winnable seats had to be female.
'The fact that we now have not 50 percent, but 57 percent is partly a function of obviously just the size of the swing, but it is also, I think, very deliberate changes that have occurred within the Labour Party over about 30 years from what was a very male-dominated culture and environment,' Bongiorno said.
The odds had been stacked against Walker being elected as her party's third choice in South Australia, Bongiorno said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
7 hours ago
- Arab News
Nike cuts ties with Australian brand ambassador over pro-Palestinian posts
LONDON: Nike has ended its partnership with Australian brand ambassador Grace Tame after the activist shared several pro-Palestinian posts on social media. Tame, a long-distance runner and high-profile advocate for survivors of sexual assault, had used her platform in recent months to speak out against Israel's military campaign in Gaza, describing it as 'genocide' and calling for a ceasefire. The American sportswear giant confirmed the decision over the weekend, following growing speculation after it launched a review of Tame's public statements. A Nike spokesperson said on Friday: 'We've agreed to part ways. We wish Grace the best as she continues her running journey.' Tame signed a $100,000 ambassadorial deal with Nike in January, marking a return to the brand after a previous collaboration four years ago. Since the start of the conflict in Gaza in October 2023, Tame has shared posts and attended events expressing solidarity with Palestinians. In November, she signed a global ceasefire petition organized by Oxfam. In May, she gave a speech at an event hosted by the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, where she said: 'Empathy should have no boundaries.' Tame also revealed she had been asked not to speak about the war at other public engagements. Her increasingly vocal advocacy drew criticism from pro-Israel commentators in Australia, some of whom accused her of sharing inflammatory and antisemitic content. In May, Tame reposted a statement from Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd criticizing Western media coverage of the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy aides in Washington. She quoted the post, which argued the incident was a direct response to Israel's assault on Gaza, rather than a random antisemitic attack. 'Even though it was undeniably, and by the alleged shooter's own admission, a response to the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which killed one hundred and seven Palestinians in the last 24 hours alone,' she reposted to her 260,000 followers. Tame, no stranger to controversy, has long been a divisive figure in Australian public life. Earlier this year, she appeared at a public event with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wearing a T-shirt that read 'F**k Murdoch,' a jab at media mogul Rupert Murdoch. In the accompanying Instagram caption, she criticized what she called 'dynastically wealthy white supremacist corporate oligarchs ruining our planet, funding genocide, war, and destruction.' In response, Murdoch-owned The Australian accused her of being fixated on Israel and wrote that Nike's 'face-saving statement of a mutual separation with Tame is arguably misplaced in its generosity.' The newspaper also noted that all Nike stores in Australia are operated by Fox Group, an Israeli company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, adding another layer to the fallout.
Asharq Al-Awsat
4 days ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
China Out of Contention for World Cup after 1-0 Loss to Indonesia
China was eliminated from 2026 World Cup qualification Thursday after a 1-0 loss to Indonesia in Jakarta. A first-half penalty from Ole Romeny was enough to keep China, whose sole appearance was in 2002, last in Group C with just one game remaining. Indonesia, coached by Patrick Kluivert, took the lead just before the break when Romeny converted from the penalty spot. Elsewhere in the group, a last-minute goal from Aziz Behich gave Australia a 1-0 win over Japan in Perth to put the Socceroos within touching distance of a sixth straight World Cup appearance. Australia can qualify for its sixth successive World Cup later Thursday if Saudi Arabia, next week's final group opponent, fails to win in Bahrain. The already-qualified Japan fielded an experimental XI with only Daichi Kamada and Koki Machida having made more than four international appearances, but still had the majority of possession and chances. Substitute Takefusa Kubo had perhaps the best opportunity with 10 minutes remaining, but the midfielder shot wide of the post from inside the area. In the 90th minute, Riley McGree broke free down the right and pulled back for Behich to curl home to bring Perth Stadium to its feet and give Australia its first win over Japan in 16 years. 'It hasn't sunk in just yet but when the final whistle went it was a great feeling,' Behich said. 'It was a tough game and we had to grind it out. It's been a long campaign and we have worked so hard.' The teams who finish third and fourth in the three groups in this third round of Asian qualifying will advance to a fourth stage to compete for the remaining two Asian places at the World Cup.
Arab News
4 days ago
- Arab News
Majority of Labour Party's Muslim representatives unhappy with UK government's Gaza policy
LONDON: Muslim political representatives who belong to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party are overwhelmingly unhappy with the British government's approach to the war in Gaza, a survey reveals. The study by the Labour Muslim Network found that 82 percent of the Muslim MPs, councillors and mayors that were polled described Starmer's handling of the conflict as 'fairly bad' or 'very bad.' Three‐quarters supported the suspension of all UK arms exports to Israel, and nearly all of the respondents backed immediate, official recognition by the UK of the State of Palestine. More than 80 percent favored sanctions on Israel. The results of the survey will add to the pressure on Starmer over the issue, with large sections of his party increasingly voicing anger over the UK's lack of action against Israel over the war in Gaza. In recent weeks the prime minister has stepped up his criticism of the Israeli military campaign in the territory, which has killed more than 54,000 people since October 2023. The UK last month joined France and Canada in calling on Israel to end the fighting and resume deliveries of humanitarian aid. All three countries threatened 'concrete measures' if Israel failed to halt the slaughter. Britain also paused negotiations with Israeli authorities for a free-trade agreement. In September 2024, the UK suspended 30 of 350 export licenses to Israel for weapons used in military operations in Gaza, after a review of Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law. However, many members on the left wing of the Labour Party want much stronger action, including an end to all arms sales and tougher sanctions. There have also been growing demands for the UK to join the majority of UN member states in officially recognizing the Palestinian sate. The issue of the war in Gaza featured heavily during campaigning for the UK parliamentary elections last year, and independent candidates running on pro-Palestinian platforms took five seats from Labour. There are 25 Muslim MPs in the UK Parliament, 19 of whom belong to the Labour Party. The survey was sent to 477 party members who are elected representatives, and 221 responded. In addition to the dissatisfaction with Labour's policy on Gaza, many voiced concern about discrimination within their own party. Two-thirds said they were not treated equally to other Labour representatives, and more than a half said they did not believe the party takes Islamophobia seriously enough. In its report on the survey results, the Labour Muslim Network said the figures 'tell the story of a growing chasm between the Labour Party and its Muslim representatives.' It added: 'The party must urgently address the structural issues identified in this report or face the moral and political consequences to come.' A Labour spokesperson told The Guardian newspaper: 'The Labour Party is proud of the diversity of our party, including the increase in the number of Muslim MPs in the parliamentary Labour party and having the first Muslim lord chancellor in Shabana Mahmood, and the first Muslim mayor of London in Sadiq Khan. 'We take any complaints of discrimination, including Islamophobia, seriously.'
