Latest news with #youngpolitician
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Australia's youngest-ever senator Charlotte Walker has a lot to learn but says she is ‘not naive'
The median age of Australia's federal parliamentarians is 50. On election night, as the scale of Labor's victory was revealed, Charlotte Walker was blowing out the candles on her 21st birthday cake. On Tuesday, she was officially declared a Labor senator for South Australia and became the youngest senator ever elected. 'I'm just taking it a day at a time,' she tells Guardian Australia as she prepares for Senate school in Canberra. On 3 May Walker worked on polling booths then spent the night in the seat of Boothby, where Labor's Louise Miller-Frost held out against Liberal Rachel Swift. Amid the other celebrations, a colleague sorted her out with cake. Walker says she loves her work for the Australian Services Union, and would be staying there if she wasn't off to Canberra. Asked what makes her nervous about her parliamentary debut, she says she is 'not naive'. 'There's a lot to learn,' she says, but the support from her union and Labor colleagues has been 'amazing'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Her youth, she says, will bring another perspective to parliament. 'I grew up in the regions,' she says of her childhood in Yankalilla and Normanville. 'I think we need our regions to also remain represented, so hopefully that complements my youth.' She studied agriculture throughout school, is pondering committee work including on the education and employment committee, and mentions global unpredictability and the cost-of-living crisis as challenges facing the nation. She describes herself as 'somewhere in the middle' of extraversion and introversion, as someone who is 'empathetic and understanding'. 'I like to have a bit of fun as well,' she says. Walker takes the youngest-ever-senator mantle from the Western Australian Greens senator Jordon Steele-John, who was 23 when he was elected. Before him, the South Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young was elected at 25, and the Australian Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja, also from SA, was appointed at 26. 'It's wonderful to hand the baton to another young South Australian woman,' Hanson-Young says. 'There's plenty of older people in politics who don't listen, don't take good advice and make stupid mistakes. Age isn't a determining factor of a good politician – but knowing what you believe and being open to others' views certainly is,' she says. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'My main tip is to surround yourself with people who will give you honest advice. And to be true with yourself about what you know and don't know. 'It is impossible to know everything – and you don't need to – but the best skill is to be able to listen.' The youngest elected parliamentarian was the Liberal Wyatt Roy, who was 20 when he was elected to the House of Representatives. Walker's election means the Liberal senator David Fawcett, who had been in parliament for 20 years, lost his spot. The Labor senators Marielle Smith and Karen Grogan, Liberals Alex Antic and Anne Ruston, and Hanson-Young were all re-elected in South Australia. But Labor taking the sixth spot was entirely unexpected. The electoral analyst Ben Raue says parties often use young people in elections to 'fill up numbers', or as a practice run for the future. But Walker has a strong pedigree and is no spot filler. As well as her union work, she was the SA Young Labor president. She says she was raised with 'Labor values'. 'My mum really set me up well to make an informed decision,' she says. 'It wasn't like … 'you will vote Labor'. She gave me the tools I needed to make a good decision and I ended up with Labor.' She says her mother was with her from her first job in politics and joining the party to now. 'So I think it's been a bit of a whirlwind for her as well,' she says. 'But I hope she's feeling proud.'
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Chehalis boy, 15, charts course for Governor's Mansion -- in four years
May 23—In four years, Chehalis resident Ethan Brunton hopes to become the youngest governor in U.S. history. At the age of 15, he is not currently eligible to run for governor, but he will turn 18 just in time to register for the 2028 primary election. Brunton said he will announce his candidacy to the community for the first time publicly on July 16 during a campaign speech at the Vernetta Smith Chehalis Timberland Library. The speech will be the first of a series of appearances he hopes to make in the area at public locations such as the library. That's partly because, as a minor, Brunton cannot legally accept campaign donations. However, Brunton sees his youth as a strength, not a weakness. Echoing a call from many politicians before him, he notes that he is not a career politician but rather a community member looking to serve. To those who wonder about his age or question the experience of someone so young, Brunton said results should matter more than age and that the current powers-that-be are not delivering those results. "Experience means nothing without results. We've seen the same political system fail over and over again," Brunton said. "I'm willing to work harder and smarter than anyone. Young people often feel ignored in politics ... I want to give them a real voice in that aspect and have someone relatable in office. As a teenage politician, representation for younger generations is baked into his campaign, a stark contrast from much of American politics. The average age of this year's U.S. congressional members is 58, and the last two U.S. presidents to take up residence in the White House were 78 on the day of their inaugurations, with president Trump being 70 on the day of his first inauguration and 78 on the day of his second. President Trump is the oldest president elected in U.S. history, with former President Biden holding the record previously. Along with leveraging his youth to his advantage, Brunton plans to run as a Republican and on a platform largely in line with the party's priorities. His goals, he said, are to address the housing and fentanyl crises along with lowering the tax burden on average Washingtonians. Brunton pitches himself as a youth with a deep passion for public service and leadership. The student has worked as a volunteer for Timberland Regional Library and currently does work with a local nonprofit that he preferred not to name. If Brunton were to be elected, he would not only be the youngest governor in state and U.S. history, he would follow the legacy of young people being elected in the state of Washington, with many of them coming from the state's southwest region. Most recently, 18-year-old Lilian Hale, R-Cathlamet, became the youngest person to serve as a Washington state legislator last year when she was sworn in as a proxy for her stepfather, Rep. Joel McEntire, R-Cathlamet, during the 2024 legislative session. Just a few years earlier, a legislator from Ferndale, Simon Sifzek, became the youngest ever Washington State senator in 2022 when he was appointed to the position by the Whatcom County Council after the death of Sen. Doug Erickson. Sifzek was 22 years old when he was sworn in and served as the senator for Washington's 42nd Legislative District for the 2022 legislative session. Even earlier, Chehalis attorney and prominent member of the community J. Vander Stoep was elected to the Washington state House of Representatives in 1980 at the age of 23, becoming, at the time, the youngest ever member of the state's lower house.
