The Greens have chosen Queensland senator Larissa Waters to be the new leader of their party following the loss of Adam Bandt at the federal election.
It is understood the party’s MPs were considering South Australia’s Senator Sarah Hanson-Young and New South Wales senator Mehreen Faruqui.
Senator Waters becomes the second woman to lead the party, and their fifth leader following Bob Brown, Christine Milne, Richard Di Natale and Adam Bandt.
Sarah Hanson-Young will serve as the party’s manager of senate business, while Faruqui will serve as the deputy leader.
After the new leadership team was announced Senator Waters spoke to the media and said there was a clear choice for Anthony Albanese’s Labor government.
“Now the Labor Party have a choice,” Waters said.
“They can work with us. They can work with us and help people and protect nature, or they can choose to work with the Coalition.”
Senator Waters said her party were focused on making a difference.
“People elected us to get sh*t done and that’s what we intend to do in the service of people and the planet,” Waters proclaimed.
At the election The Greens lost two seats in Brisbane, alongside leader Adam Bandt’s seat of Melbourne. When parliament resumes Elizabeth Watson-Brown will be their only lower house member.
The 48-year-old former lawyer is the younger leaders of a political party in the parliament, both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Liberal leader Sussan Ley are in their early sixties, while One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is 70-years-old. National’s leader David Littleproud is also 48 years old.
Senator Waters was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her parents were working and studying in Canada, they arrived back in Australia when their daughter was 11 months old.
She holds both a Bachelor of Science and a law degree. She spent almost a decade working as a lawyer with the Environmental Defenders Office. Waters ran for both the Queensland parliament and federal parliament before being elected in 2010, and re-elected in 2016.
The following year Senator Waters was forced to resign when it was discovered she also held Canadian citizenship. Her resignation came four days after colleague Scott Ludlum was forced to resign over his New Zealand citizenship that he was unaware of. It kicked off a period of many MPs being forced to resign, in total eight senator and seven members of the lower house had to resign.
Senator Waters returned to the senate when her replacement Andrew Bartlett resigned to allow her to resume her position. During her time in parliament Senator Waters has looked after the portfolios of women, mining and resources and democracy.
In 2016 Senator Waters set a landmark when she became the first person to breastfeed a child in the chamber.
