I was born in Sydney, the eldest of four kids. My mum was an Irish immigrant from a big family of seven kids, and my Dad and his brother were born in Australia.
We moved around quite a bit while I was growing up as my parents followed work opportunities, from Sydney to Wollongong and even to Canberra.
Dad worked in retail – beginning at a service desk and working his way up to a career in management. He always had a strong interest in natural history and our environment and brought us up to share in his love of nature.
Mum left school at 15 and worked all sorts of jobs, including a long stint doing night shifts at a media monitoring company, and of course, keeping busy looking after us.
When I was finishing school, Mum enrolled in Uni and became a teacher. It wasn’t easy but she was determined, and we were all really proud of her.
We were a big, busy family and all had to chip in at home and were brought up to always think about others.
I was a pretty nerdy kid and loved school – it really opened up so many opportunities for me.
After leaving high school, I decided to study medicine as I thought it would be a good way to help people. That meant moving to Melbourne and juggling study with part-time jobs. Back then, it was always possible to find somewhere to live unlike it is now for many students.
After becoming a GP, I spent a couple of years working at a service for people experiencing homelessness, and it was there that you could see every failure of our social and political systems being lived by people every day. It really motivated me to take the next step and become politically active.
I was inspired to volunteer with the Greens by Richard Di Natale (a former Geelong GP), who was doing great work in the Senate – what he was saying just made so much sense to me. Like many women, I had to be tapped on the shoulder (more like given a good shove!) before even considering running for any kind of elected office. It was a huge team effort to get elected as the first Greens councillor at the City of Greater Geelong, and such a privilege to serve the community for 5 years.
I loved local Government but was getting frustrated at the sense our region was being left behind – on things like climate change, housing and access to vital services like healthcare. These are things that need urgent action, and it’s why I ran for state parliament.
I feel incredibly fortunate to now be the Greens State Member for Western Victoria in the Victorian Legislative Council. I’m also very lucky to have two fantastic young kids and a supportive partner who I live with here in Geelong.
What are you most passionate about and why?
When I was studying medicine, it didn’t take long for me to realise that a lot of what affected people’s health couldn’t be fixed by a doctor. Access to care was being determined by postcode and income, not need. People were getting sick from preventable causes, more often due to social and environmental factors.
That’s what helped drive my passion for addressing the root causes of people’s poor health and wellbeing. We live in such an unequal society, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Everyone has a right to safe and secure housing that is of a decent standard. No one should be choosing between seeing a doctor or dentist and putting food on the table. And climate change is the greatest health and social justice threat that we face – we have to act now and start preparing for what is to come.
What are you most excited about right now?
Being in state Parliament is an incredible opportunity – I have to pinch myself some days! The Greens hold the balance of power in the Upper House – which is really exciting, but also a big responsibility.
We have been using that power to negotiate constructively to get better outcomes on a whole range of legislation, but we’ve also been putting our agenda forward – on climate, on housing and on First Nations Justice.
I’m also sensing a change in the community – people are getting active around a lot of these issues, making their voices heard – it feels like we could be at the start of powerful social change.
What do you do for fun?
I love hanging out with my family – young kids are very grounding! We spend lots of time in our garden, which seems to be doing a good job of feeding all the local possums, birds, slugs and rodents. We love getting away to explore the region on trips when we can and manage to squeeze in the occasional hike.
There are lots of passions that have moved to the backburner for now – reading fiction, cooking and watching cricket (I love a good test match).
Photo supplied.
HuG 