Louise Pratt
Encyclopedia
Louise Clare Pratt is an Australia
n politician. She has been a Labor
member of the Australian Senate
since July 2008, representing the state of Western Australia
. She had been assured of election at the 2007 federal election after winning the first position on the Labor ticket, defeating incumbent Senator Ruth Webber
in a preselection contest. Pratt previously served as a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council
from 2001 to 2007. She was the youngest woman ever elected to the Legislative Council at the time of her election, the second openly
bisexual woman to be elected to an Australian parliament, and the first to have a transsexual man as a partner.
, and grew up in the outer hills suburbs of Perth
, where she attended Eastern Hills Senior High School. She studied arts at the University of Western Australia
, where she became involved in student politics. After taking on a number of positions at her campus, she was elected as the state education officer for the National Union of Students
, as well as a member of its national executive, in 1994.
After university, Pratt became involved in gay rights activism, serving as a regular spokesperson for Gay and Lesbian Equality, a prominent advocacy group in the state. This saw her addressing issues such as discrimination, unequal age of consent laws, homophobia in schools and property rights, and frequently saw her clash with the conservative Liberal Party of Australia
government of Richard Court
. It also saw Pratt working in concert with fellow activist Brian Greig
, who later went on to become an Australian Democrats
Senator.
Senator Pratt has a partner, Aram Hosie, a transman and activist in the Western Australian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
at the 1996 state election
. She worked at various times for former MLA Megan Anwyl
, Jim McGinty
, Geoff Gallop
, and federal MP Carmen Lawrence
. It was while working as electorate officer for Lawrence that Pratt won the third position on the Labor ticket for the East Metropolitan Region at the 2001 state election
. Labor won the election against expectations, and Pratt scraped into the final seat in the region, becoming the youngest woman ever elected to the Legislative Council.
Pratt took her seat with the new term of the Legislative Council in May 2001. Her maiden speech was notable for the suggestion that the voting age in the state should be dropped to 16, but her first major contribution came in July, when she was appointed to a Ministerial committee on gay
and lesbian law reform with a wide mandate to make recommendations regarding the elimination of discrimination in state law. Pratt, along with lesbian Green
MP Giz Watson
, played a major role in the committee, which ultimately made a wide range of recommendations, and which was tabled in the Western Australian parliament on 2 August 2001. The committee's recommendations were largely taken into law with the 2002 passage of the Acts Amendment (Lesbian and Gay Law Reform) Act 2002. Amongst the reforms included in the act were a complete ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the granting of the right for same-sex couples to adopt children, a lowering of the age of consent from 21 to 16, the right for same-sex couples to inherit from a deceased partner, and the repeal of legislation which had made it an offence to promote homosexuality in schools.
After the conclusion of the law reform debate, Pratt became relatively less vocal in the media and received some criticism in the state media for making only 24 speeches in her first 15 months in parliament. However, she was no less active in her role - taking up the issue of greenhouse emissions through her position on the Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs, and advocating for midwife led models of care in maternity services. She was comfortably re-elected at the 2005 state election
, and was promoted to chair of the Environment and Public Affairs committee after the election. She also continued to pursue her interests in midwifery services through her role as a member of the Public Obstetric Services Select Committee, and served as Chair of the State Government Adoption Legislation Review Committee. Pratt made some headlines again in December 2005, arguing for the introduction of civil union legislation in the state, but has so far been unsuccessful in this endeavour.
Pratt began campaigning for Labor preselection for a Senate seat for the 2007 federal election in mid-2006. She received wide cross-factional support, and achieved a shock victory in October, topping the poll to win first position on the Labor ticket ahead of incumbent Senators Mark Bishop
and Ruth Webber
. This resulted in Webber's subsequent defeat at the general election after being dropped to the only marginally winnable third position. Pratt subsequently resigned from her Legislative Council seat in October 2007, and as the highest-placed Labor candidate, was easily elected to the Senate in November. Batong Pham
, a former political staffer, was appointed to Pratt's former Legislative Council seat on 26 November 2007.
In The Senate, Pratt was made a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, the Standing Committee on Economics, and the Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts. She made her first speech on 27 August 2008, in which she mentioned a range of policy issues with which was concerned: sexuality, the environment, foreign aid, immigration, social inclusion and workforce participation.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician. She has been a Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
member of the Australian Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
since July 2008, representing the state of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. She had been assured of election at the 2007 federal election after winning the first position on the Labor ticket, defeating incumbent Senator Ruth Webber
Ruth Webber
Ruth Stephanie Webber is an Australian politician. She was a Labor member of the Australian Senate from 2002 to 2008, representing the state of Western Australia....
in a preselection contest. Pratt previously served as a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council
Western Australian Legislative Council
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
from 2001 to 2007. She was the youngest woman ever elected to the Legislative Council at the time of her election, the second openly
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
bisexual woman to be elected to an Australian parliament, and the first to have a transsexual man as a partner.
Biography
Pratt was born in KalgoorlieKalgoorlie, Western Australia
Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway...
, and grew up in the outer hills suburbs of Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, where she attended Eastern Hills Senior High School. She studied arts at the University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...
, where she became involved in student politics. After taking on a number of positions at her campus, she was elected as the state education officer for the National Union of Students
National Union of Students of Australia
The National Union of Students is the peak representative body for Australian university students. Most student unions in Australian campuses are affiliated to NUS...
, as well as a member of its national executive, in 1994.
After university, Pratt became involved in gay rights activism, serving as a regular spokesperson for Gay and Lesbian Equality, a prominent advocacy group in the state. This saw her addressing issues such as discrimination, unequal age of consent laws, homophobia in schools and property rights, and frequently saw her clash with the conservative Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
government of Richard Court
Richard Court
Richard Fairfax Court AC , was a Western Australian politician, representing the seat of Nedlands in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the Liberal Party of Australia from 1982 to 2001. He served as Premier of Western Australia from 1993 to 2001.Court was born into an old political...
. It also saw Pratt working in concert with fellow activist Brian Greig
Brian Greig
Brian Andrew Greig OAM , Australian politician, was an Australian Democrats member of the Australian Senate from 1999 to 2005, representing the state of Western Australia....
, who later went on to become an Australian Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
Senator.
Senator Pratt has a partner, Aram Hosie, a transman and activist in the Western Australian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
Career
Pratt remained active in the Labor Party outside of student politics, and was the Labor candidate in the then-safe Liberal state seat of Alfred CoveElectoral district of Alfred Cove
The Electoral district of Alfred Cove is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. The district is named for the southern riverside Perth suburb of Alfred Cove which falls within its borders.-History:...
at the 1996 state election
Western Australian state election, 1996
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 14 December 1996 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...
. She worked at various times for former MLA Megan Anwyl
Megan Anwyl
Megan Irene Anwyl is a former Australian politician. She was a Labor member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, representing Kalgoorlie from 1996 to 2001....
, Jim McGinty
Jim McGinty
James Andrew McGinty is an Australian politician. He was a Labor member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1990 to 2009, representing the district of Fremantle. He was Labor Party leader and Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1996...
, Geoff Gallop
Geoff Gallop
Geoffrey Ian Gallop, AC is an Australian academic and former politician. He was the Premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006. He currently resides in Sydney.-Early life and education:...
, and federal MP Carmen Lawrence
Carmen Lawrence
Carmen Mary Lawrence is a retired Australian politician; a former Premier of Western Australia and the first woman to become Premier of a State of the Commonwealth of Australia....
. It was while working as electorate officer for Lawrence that Pratt won the third position on the Labor ticket for the East Metropolitan Region at the 2001 state election
Western Australian state election, 2001
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 10 February 2001 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...
. Labor won the election against expectations, and Pratt scraped into the final seat in the region, becoming the youngest woman ever elected to the Legislative Council.
Pratt took her seat with the new term of the Legislative Council in May 2001. Her maiden speech was notable for the suggestion that the voting age in the state should be dropped to 16, but her first major contribution came in July, when she was appointed to a Ministerial committee on gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and lesbian law reform with a wide mandate to make recommendations regarding the elimination of discrimination in state law. Pratt, along with lesbian Green
Greens Western Australia
The Greens Western Australia is the state branch of the Australian Greens in Western Australia. The Greens WA was formed following the merger of the WA Greens and the Green Earth Alliance...
MP Giz Watson
Giz Watson
-Biography:Watson was born in 1957 in Eastleigh, a town in Hampshire, England, and emigrated to Western Australia in September 1967, travelling extensively through the state. She studied environmental science at Murdoch University and, after leaving university to do voluntary work for a couple of...
, played a major role in the committee, which ultimately made a wide range of recommendations, and which was tabled in the Western Australian parliament on 2 August 2001. The committee's recommendations were largely taken into law with the 2002 passage of the Acts Amendment (Lesbian and Gay Law Reform) Act 2002. Amongst the reforms included in the act were a complete ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the granting of the right for same-sex couples to adopt children, a lowering of the age of consent from 21 to 16, the right for same-sex couples to inherit from a deceased partner, and the repeal of legislation which had made it an offence to promote homosexuality in schools.
After the conclusion of the law reform debate, Pratt became relatively less vocal in the media and received some criticism in the state media for making only 24 speeches in her first 15 months in parliament. However, she was no less active in her role - taking up the issue of greenhouse emissions through her position on the Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs, and advocating for midwife led models of care in maternity services. She was comfortably re-elected at the 2005 state election
Western Australian state election, 2005
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 26 February 2005 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...
, and was promoted to chair of the Environment and Public Affairs committee after the election. She also continued to pursue her interests in midwifery services through her role as a member of the Public Obstetric Services Select Committee, and served as Chair of the State Government Adoption Legislation Review Committee. Pratt made some headlines again in December 2005, arguing for the introduction of civil union legislation in the state, but has so far been unsuccessful in this endeavour.
Pratt began campaigning for Labor preselection for a Senate seat for the 2007 federal election in mid-2006. She received wide cross-factional support, and achieved a shock victory in October, topping the poll to win first position on the Labor ticket ahead of incumbent Senators Mark Bishop
Mark Bishop
Thomas Mark Bishop , has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian Senate representing the state of Western Australia since July 1996. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia and was educated at the University of Adelaide and Harvard University...
and Ruth Webber
Ruth Webber
Ruth Stephanie Webber is an Australian politician. She was a Labor member of the Australian Senate from 2002 to 2008, representing the state of Western Australia....
. This resulted in Webber's subsequent defeat at the general election after being dropped to the only marginally winnable third position. Pratt subsequently resigned from her Legislative Council seat in October 2007, and as the highest-placed Labor candidate, was easily elected to the Senate in November. Batong Pham
Batong Pham
Batong Vu Pham is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from November 2007 to May 2009...
, a former political staffer, was appointed to Pratt's former Legislative Council seat on 26 November 2007.
In The Senate, Pratt was made a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, the Standing Committee on Economics, and the Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts. She made her first speech on 27 August 2008, in which she mentioned a range of policy issues with which was concerned: sexuality, the environment, foreign aid, immigration, social inclusion and workforce participation.