Dee Margetts, who served in the federal Senate and later the Western Australian Legislative Council, has been remembered as a passionate environmental activist and an early voice in support of LGBTIQA+ rights following her death at the age of 71.
Margetts was a member of People for Nuclear Disarmament in Western Australia in the late 1980s before becoming a foundation member of The Greens WA. She moved into politics after working as a teacher and librarian.
Senator Margetts was elected at the 1993 federal election and served in the federal parliament at a time when The Greens often held the balance of power. She served as the party whip and also contributed to parliamentary committees and delegations. She was unsuccessful in her bid for re-election at the 1998 election.
Later, she joined state parliament, serving a single four-year term in the Western Australian Legislative Council from 2001 to 2005. Following her parliamentary career, Margetts returned to university and completed a PhD.
Greens co-founder and former national leader Dr Bob Brown praised Margetts’ life and work.
“Dee was an outstanding voice in the Senate for First People’s rights and the interests of rural communities. In 1998, Dee worked hard to stop extinguishment of native title on thousands of non-freehold leases where it should have existed, but the major parties prevailed.
“Dee had a deep and authentic desire to make Australia a fairer place and strove to regain democracy from the claws of corporate influence. She was a strident advocate against the corporate grip over governments in Australia as well as globally.
“It was my fortune to have served in the Senate with Dee in those very early days of the Greens,” Dr Brown said.
Current Western Australian Greens leader Dr Brad Pettitt said he was saddened to hear of the former politician’s passing.
“I remember Dee from when I first joined the Greens in the mid-1990s as a smart, funny and committed leader of our movement. Thanks Dee for helping forge the path that so many more of us get to use to make a better world today,” he said.
Former Australian Democrats senator Brian Greig, who is currently the Western Australian spokesperson for Just.Equal, recalled Margetts’ support for LGBTIQA+ communities.
“Dee was one of the very few early advocates for the LGBTI community, before that term was coined.
“She participated in Pride parades in the early 1990s and moved amendments in the Senate to end discrimination against same-sex couples in superannuation.”
The attempt to address the discrimination was opposed by the Keating Labor Government, and the laws were not changed until 2008. Greig also recalled that Margetts was one of the very few federal MPs willing to meet with LGBTI lobbyists in Canberra during the 1990s.
