Senator Larissa Waters’ shock resignation yesterday will not only see a drop in the representation of women in the upper house, but also the loss of a strong voice on gender equality issues.
Waters resigned yesterday after discovering she had dual citizenship with Canada, making her ineligible for her Senate position. Waters was born to Australian parents, left Canada when she was 11 months old, and has not returned since. The Canadian law requiring her to renounce citizenship was changed a week after she was born. She admitted the oversight was her fault during a press conference yesterday.
Waters’ likely replacement will be Andrew Bartlett, the former leader of the Australian Democrats, who was number 2 on the Greens’ ticket in Queensland at the election last year.
Waters has been particularly vocal on gender equality matters, including pushing to restore funding for domestic violence services, on stamping out sexism, on getting more women represented in parliament, and on removing taxes from necessary female products like tampons.
She’s also been a strong advocate and role model for young mothers in the workplace, becoming the first woman to breastfeed in the Australian Parliament and the first in the world to breastfeed while speaking in Parliament. These were strong images that were published and shared across the globe, potentially inspiring and encouraging young girls and women into politics well beyond our own borders.
And of course beyond gender equality advocacy (although many of us would argue it’s all linked) Waters has been a strong spokesperson on the environment, especially on the Great Barrier Reef, coal seam gas and climate change.
Some of my personal favourite moments from Waters have come from her straight-up, no-hestitations approach to dealing with her fellow senators. When she was randomly and bizarrely asked if she was married by a Nationals Senator during question time in 2015, she immediately responded: “No, I’m not and that’s an irrelevant question, my marital status has nothing to do with this chamber.”
Then of course there was Waters’ exchange with Pauline Hanson on Q&A in August last year. “I’m surprised. I didn’t know that about you,” Hanson told fellow Q&A panelist Sam Dastyari after finding out he was a Muslim. Waters interjected, “because he doesn’t have three heads?”
In her maiden speech after being first elected in 2011, Waters said The Greens were the only party that fitted with her beliefs and values. “When my time is up, I leave this place having contributed in some small way to improving our environmental laws with better community rights, consideration of cumulative impacts, and federal oversight of water, the lawyer in me will be delighted.”
Waters’ time may not be up just yet. She hasn’t ruled out a comeback.