Women will make up 55 per cent of Victoria’s legislative council, marking the first time a majority of women have been elected to the chamber.
Results for the legislative council, also known as the upper house, were finalised on Wednesday, with 40 members of the legislative council (MLCs) confirmed. There are 22 women MLCs.
Labor won 15 of the 40 seats in the upper house, with the Coalition claiming 14 (12 for the Liberals and 2 for the Nationals).
There will be 11 crossbenchers, with the Greens winning 4 seats, Legalise Cannabis winning 2 seats, and the Liberal Democrats, Animal Justice Party, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, Labour DLP and One Nation, each claiming 1 seat.
The Greens have boosted their representation in the legislative council, with 3 new MLCs joining the party’s leader, Samantha Ratnam.
Some of the notable additions to the upper house include the 2 new MLCs for Legalise Cannabis: Rachel Payne in the South-Eastern Metro region and David Ettershank in the Western Metro region.
30-year-old Georgie Purcell (pictured above) from the Animal Justice Party has also been elected.
“What a day,” Purcell shared on social media. “It is such an honour to have been declared Victoria’s newest Animal Justice Party MP today, and one of the youngest women ever elected to the Legislative Council.”
“For so long, I was led to believe parliament wasn’t a place for women like me. But now I’ve realised that more than ever, we need politicians with colourful backgrounds and diverse experiences to share in our halls of power.”
Reason Party leader Fiona Patten conceded defeat earlier this week, after it has become clear she had lost her upper house seat to Adem Somyurek. During her 8 years in the legislative council, Patten was instrumental in delivering harassment-free zones around abortion clinics, the decriminalisation of sex work, introducing voluntary assisted dying and Melbourne’s first medically supervised injecting room.