Don't Waste Your First Time
Greens MPs
Senator for South Australia
About
Sarah Hanson-Young successfully ran for the Senate in the 2007 federal election on a platform of helping create a fairer, greener, and more sustainable Australia. She took her seat as South Australia’s first ever Greens Senator on July 1, 2008. Sarah is also the youngest person ever elected to the Senate, and the youngest woman elected in the Federal Parliament’s history.
Originally from country Victoria, Sarah now calls Adelaide home. Before becoming a Senator, she worked in the fields of human rights and community activism for several years, including a role as SA/NT Campaign Manager for Amnesty International.
As well as being a strong voice for South Australia in the Senate, Sarah is the Australian Greens’ spokesperson for a number of portfolios, including Education, Immigration & Citizenship, Human Rights, The Murray-Darling Basin, the Status of Women, Youth, Sexuality and Gender Identity, Tourism and Sport.
Policies
As a vocal supporter of human rights, Sarah has stood up for asylum-seekers and refugees and called for an end to offshore detention, the use of isolated “desert prisons’’ and the detention of children.
She has pushed the Government and Coalition to put more support into early childhood education, to make childcare an affordable, accessible essential service for all families.
On the environment she achieved a $10 million bioremediation program as part of amendments to the Government’s Stimulus Package to provide help for South Australia’s threatened Lower Lakes and Coorong.
Earlier this year her Marriage Equality Bill became the first dedicated piece of legislation relating to same-sex marriage to be debated and voted on in Federal Parliament.
