2018-03-08
Speech in Parliament - Lidia Thorpe: As a strong Aboriginal woman with unbroken lineage to my matriarchal country of Tjapwurung of the Western District, today I stand proud to be a woman and stand proud to be a Green.
Today is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the achievements of women, and the Victorian Greens have a lot to celebrate.
Seven of our eight members of Parliament are women. Our leader, Samantha Ratnam in the Council, is a woman who came to Australia as a refugee from Sri Lanka and is now leading the biggest political shake-up this state has ever seen with the rise of the Greens.
Huong Truong, our Greens member for Western Metropolitan Region in the Council, is the first Vietnamese woman to sit in the Victorian Parliament, and of course I am the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Victorian Parliament.
But the Greens’ greatest achievement is that we women will always campaign for justice, for peace and for caring for this land.