Senator Jana Stewart worked as a family therapist for years and as it turns out, her family therapy skills have come in handy in Canberra.
“Relationships repair, conflict resolution – it really goes to building stronger relationships, to be able to get better outcomes,” she told Women’s Agenda in this week’s episode of The Women’s Agenda Podcast.
Senator Stewart is a proud Mutthi Mutthi and Wamba Wamba woman, the youngest First Nations woman to be elected into Federal Parliament, and Victoria’s first Aboriginal Labor Senator. She was elected into the Upper House and gave her first speech in 2022 – when she was 35 weeks pregnant.
Everything she has done up until this point – working in family therapy, the public sector, with First Nations communities and now as a Senator – has been to improve the lives of women, children and families.
“I want to make sure that I’m in the place where I can have the most impact on the lives of women and families,” Senator Stewart said.
Though she doesn’t consider herself young, Senator Stewart is one of the younger politicians in Canberra. And being a young woman in politics – an institution created by and for men – is never easy.
But Senator Stewart wants young women like herself to know that Parliament is a place where young women can thrive.
“Representation matters, in terms of seeing women in the workplace, because it can feel like a really scary thing to take that leap,” she said.
One way she can get through to young voters to send that message is through social media. It’s where a lot of young people get their news, and that isn’t lost on her.
“While it might seem not very important, it’s actually a really good tool to make sure that young people… hear what it is that the government is doing to support them, in a way that is in really plain English,” Senator Stewart said.
“I think politicians can use lots of really big words… and it sounds really smart, but people often don’t know what it means.
“I think it’s also a really great kind of humanising tool for politicians… I think it is really important to show a bit of who I am. My view is that you should be able to see a bit of yourself in parliament that represents you.”
As a First Nations woman, Senator Stewart is proud to have a place in the Senate representing her community.
“It’s an incredibly privileged position to be in,” she said. “Not everybody has the opportunity to be in this place. Politics is definitely well-known for being a place for the privileged, and never in a million years did I think I would be in this place.
“I come from a long line of women who have done the work on the ground, supporting our families, essentially to deal with the impacts of policies and legislation that have been done in our parliaments.
“So it’s a pretty incredible place to be influencing and shaping that legislation and policy now, to make sure those harms don’t happen in the first place.”
Listen to The Women’s Agenda Podcast now – wherever you get your podcasts.