EXCLUSIVE
Lynn MacLaren who previously served in the Legislative Council for The Greens has launched a bid to return to the parliament, this time running for the lower house seat of Albany.
MacLaren will be the candidate for The Greens in Albany with her campaign for election launching this Wednesday. Her selection as a candidate will see her face off against the incumbent Labor member Rebecca Stephens and Liberal candidate Thomas Brough.
Both Brough and MacLaren are serving members of the City of Albany Council. Last year Brough made international headlines when he suggested that LGBTIQA+ communities embrace “minor attracted people”. His comments were criticised by Liberal leader Libby Mettam, but she’s stood by him as a candidate.
Giz Watson, who has also previously been a member of parliament and who has previously contested the seat for The Greens, was expected to the party’s candidate for Albany but has stood down.
MacLaren’s first stint in the WA parliament began in 2005 when she replaced Jim Scott, who launched a bid for the lower house seat of Fremantle. At the subsequent election MacLaren was not elected.
She was successful at returning to the parliament in 2008 and was reelected at the 2013 state election. During her time in parliament for The Greens her portfolios included planning, housing, community services, seniors, volunteering and a range of other areas.
Lynn MacLaren was also a loud voice for marriage equality in Australia, often speaking at rallies during the long campaign for change. She also put forwarded a symbolic Private Members Bill in the WA parliament calling for the laws to be changed. She lost her seat at the 2017 state election.
MacLaren married her partner Sarah Holt-Forman in San Francisco in 2016 but suffered heartbreak when just a year later Holt-Forman lost a long battle with cancer.
MacLaren was born in Colorado and first came to Albany as a Rotary Youth Exchange student in 1979 where she attended Albany Senior High School. She later returned to Australia, first living in Albany and moving to Perth a few years later.
She returned to living in Albany and in 2023 made a return to the world of politics successfully being elected to the Albany City Council.
