Janet Rice

Janet Rice has been a passionate environmentalist and activist for more than thirty years. 

Janet is committed to being a strong voice for a caring society, a fair economy and a clean environment.

More about Janet

Janet Rice has been a passionate campaigner for justice, people and the planet for more than thirty years. She took her seat as a Greens Senator for Victoria in 2014. 

Janet grew up in Melbourne’s western suburbs and lives in Footscray where she shared a home with her wife Penny until Penny’s passing in 2019. They have two adult children.

A climate scientist by training, Janet began her working life campaigning to protect our forests. She was part of the 1983 Franklin River Blockade, and a leader of the campaign that resulted in the creation of the Errinundra National Park in East Gippsland. Within a decade, she was a founding member of the Greens in Victoria.

As councillor and mayor of the City of Maribyrnong in Melbourne's west, Janet worked to involve people in Council decision-making and positioned the city as a leader in reducing carbon pollution and taking action against global warming. She even swapped the mayoral car for a bike as part of her commitment to reduce pollution.

Janet is committed to being a strong voice for a caring society, a fair economy and a clean environment. She is a fierce advocate for people on income support and has persistently questioned successive Governments about their inaction on poverty, is passionate about advocating for a human rights approach to aged care and ensuring older people are treated with dignity and respect in all aspects of their life. Janet‘s work in the forests portfolio continues her lifelong passion to protect Australia’s native forests and the animals that rely on them from the destruction of logging.  

Janet is the only openly Bi+ member of Parliament, one of her proudest moments as a Senator was her work on marriage equality which was made a reality in 2017. 

In Parliament, Janet is Chair of the Senate Community Affairs References Committee, co-convenor of and is co-chair of the Amnesty International Parliamentary Group, Parliamentary Friends of People with Arthritis, Parliamentary Friends of Grandparent Carers, the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Tibet Group, and the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine.