Underestimated, sexualised, conversation-changer: What it's like being the youngest person in parliament
The average age of politicians in the last parliament was 52, with fewer than one in four parliamentarians aged 45 or under. By contrast, the median age of the broader Australian population is around 38.
That age disparity was something Senator Fatima Payman felt straight away.
"Imagine walking into a place like Parliament House, where the average age is closer to my dad's than mine, and thinking, 'yeah, I belong here'," Senator Payman told triple j hack.
Elected at 27, Senator Payman was the youngest member of the last session of parliament, otherwise known as the Baby of the House or Senate.
She said there were moments when she felt out of place.
"Like, when my colleagues would reference political events from the '80s or throw names around of people they knew, as if, you know, we all went to school together," Senator Payman said.
Senator Payman's life experiences didn't always align with her colleagues' experiences.
She said being young meant she wasn't afraid to ask tough questions, even of her own side of politics.
"As somebody who wasn't a political 'nepo baby'… I wasn't weighed down by old alliances, old political baggage," she said
Senator Payman left the Labor Party over its stance on the war in Gaza last year, and now represents a political party she founded, Australia's Voice.
The WA senator said her former Labor colleagues constantly "underestimated" her.
"Micromanagement, constant checking in … like, keeping tabs on me. It did feel like, at times, they did not see me as an equal."
She said that feeling of being underestimated got worse when she travelled overseas on international delegations.
"I knew that my presence as the first hijab-wearing young senator made people uncomfortable, and I thought that was OK, because change is meant to be uncomfortable. I wasn't going to dress or speak a certain way just to fit in," she said.
Senator Payman said it was good that more young people were being elected, but she said that major parties must do better at listening to what younger MPs are telling them.
"It's good for us to have a seat at the table, but we also need a microphone. We need our voices to be heard."
Wyatt Roy was elected to the House of Representatives when he was just 20.
He told triple j hack that his age was used against him by his Labor political opponents when he was running his campaign for the LNP in the Queensland seat of Longman in 2010.
"They had a slogan, 'Don't trust a learner in Longman' and every single campaign poster was about my age and pretty horrific ageist abuse, to be honest with you," Mr Roy told hack.
He said voters saw past his age.
"People were very receptive to the idea of doing something differently, of having a long-term vision for the future."
He said it took some time after his election for the gravity of it to sink in.
Mr Roy said his parliamentary colleagues "embraced" him as the youngest person in the corridors of power and often sought out his opinion.
"It gave me opportunities that I think if I was coming in in a more normal way, I would not have been given."
"In some ways, it was an unfair advantage rather than a disadvantage, because my most senior colleagues, who had been around for a long time, recognised that maybe we did have to do things differently."
He said his age made older colleagues realise that long-term problems and decisions had consequences.
"There were many moments where people would look to me and say, 'well, you're the only person in the room who's going to be here when this decision is impacting the country'," Mr Roy said.
Wyatt Roy remains the youngest person ever to be elected to the Australian parliament, breaking a record set by 22-year-old Edwin Corboy back in 1918.
He said he doesn't think he'll hold that record for much longer.
"There are lots of reasons to be pessimistic about politics, but on that, I am actually quite optimistic."
When she was first elected in 2007, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young was the youngest woman ever to be voted in by the Australian public.
That record was broken this year by Labor's Charlotte Walker, who turned 21 on election day; the new session of parliament is expected to be one of the youngest and most diverse ever.
Senator Hanson-Young told triple j hack that being a young woman in parliament nearly 20 years ago meant she "had a target" on her back.
Senator Hanson-Young said being the youngest member of parliament gave her the confidence to push boundaries and try new ways of representing her electorate.
"I was the very first [Australian] politician ever on Twitter," Senator Hanson-Young said of the social media platform that is now known as X.
The experience allowed her to talk to voters more freely, but she said it came with consequences.
"[I was] very much on the frontline of those nasty trolling attacks … and at a time when no one else really recognised that was going on."
Senator Hanson-Young said she experienced sexism and overt sexualisation in her own workplace, too.
At first, she stayed silent. Older female colleagues advised her not to let "the bullies know it's affecting you".
"As a young person, and you're really trying to prove yourself, in a new workplace, and you don't want to be the one who's complaining," Senator Hanson-Young said.
"I learned the hard way that, actually, it doesn't stop … and ignoring it and pretending it's not there doesn't make it better.
In 2018, Senator Hanson-Young sued Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm for defamation over comments he made implying she was a misandrist and hypocrite.
The following year, Senator Hanson-Young was awarded $120,000 in damages, which she donated to two women's groups.
She said the decision to call out bad behaviour sparked a broader conversation about culture in Parliament House.
Reflecting on the early years of her parliamentary career and the situation facing incoming MPs today, Senator Hanson-Young said the culture in parliament had "started to change", and she was hopeful that having more young people in the building would accelerate the momentum.
"My daughter is now 18, and I see how she and her peers speak up for themselves and know where their boundaries are. I think it's healthy for women and I think it's healthy for men and it makes us a better society."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Demoted Liberal senator pushes indexation cap on Labor's HECS Bill
Demoted Liberal senator Sarah Henderson is pushing for an indexation cap on Labor's student debt-slashing Bill. Central to Labor's re-election pitch, it was the first piece of legislation the Albanese government introduced when parliament resumed last week. NewsWire understands it did so confident the Coalition would back it in, despite opposition posturing that it was not guaranteed. Sussan Ley and her education spokesman Jonno Duniam have since publicly signalled they would pass it as is, making Senator Henderson yet another Coalition backbencher to break from the party line on a key issue. 'This is a proposal for a HECS loan inflation guarantee, so effectively saying that HECS should not be above 3 per cent indexation,' Senator Henderson told Sky News on Monday. 'We've seen student debt completely run out of control under Labor. 'It's been an absolute fiasco, which is why they brought forward their student debt discount. 'At one stage, it was close to 16 per cent increase, and even after the change in indexation, it's still 14.3 per cent up since Labor was elected.' Senator Henderson was opposition education spokeswoman under Peter Dutton but banished to the back bench in the new Coalition front bench under Ms Ley. She said she put her indexation policy forward before the May 3 election but it ended up on the 'cutting room floor' – a decision she labelled 'regrettable'. 'I did actually propose this in the lead up to the last election,' Senator Henderson said. 'I've been talking to my colleagues, I've received a very positive response. 'So I'm hoping that we'll go through our ordinary party room processes, but I'm very much hoping that this amendment will get the support not just of the Coalition, but also of the parliament.' However, she said the opposition should not vote against Labor's Bill. The Bill would cut student debts by 20 per cent for some 3 million graduates, or wipe off $5500 from the average debt. The changes would also raise the repayment threshold for student loans from $54,000 to $67,000. Unless members of the Coalition back her amendments, Senator Henderson will have a hard time getting her changes off the ground. The Greens have ruled out working with her, with the minor party's education spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi saying on Monday that the 'Coalition and Sarah Henderson are no friends of higher education'. Senator Faruqi has blasted the Bill for not going far enough. But with support from the Coalition, whether the Greens back it matters little to getting through the Upper House.
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
Ex-NSW Premier likens Israel's actions in Gaza to war crimes committed by Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin
Former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr has likened Israel's actions in Gaza to war crimes and humanitarian crisis committed by the Nazis, Joseph Stalin and People's Republic of China chairman Mao Zedong, urging tougher action on from the Australian government. Speaking to Radio National, the former NSW premier and Labor heavyweight said Israel was using 'mass starvation against the civilian population as a weapon of war'. 'There's a pattern of behaviour here that really demands comparison with the worst of the last 100 years, of Stalin's Ukraine, of the Warsaw Ghetto, of Mao's Great Leap Forward,' he said. 'Unspeakable cruelty is being visited against babies and children in the enforcement of something not seen in the modern world, that is an advanced state using mass starvation as a weapon of war and giving effect to a genocide.' Israel has started a 'tactical pause' to allow aid agencies to tackle the hunger crisis in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was not to blame for the situation, adding there were 'secure routes' for aid. While he welcomed stronger comments from Anthony Albanese that Israel had 'quite clearly' breached international law by withholding aid to civilians in Gaza, Mr Carr called for further action. He urged the Prime Minister to follow French President Emmanuel Macron to recognise Palestinian statehood when he attends the United Nations General Assembly in September. On Sunday, the Labor leader watered down the action, stating there needed to be more detail on how a Palestinian state would function, plus assurances there would be no involvement from Hamas. 'How do you exclude Hamas from any involvement there? How do you ensure that a Palestinian State operates in an appropriate way which does not threaten the existence of Israel?' Mr Albanese told the ABC. 'And so we won't do any decision as a gesture. We will do it as a way forward, if the circumstances are met.' However Mr Carr said Australia was 'giving the impression that we need the comfort of Britain' before recognising Palestine, and urged Mr Albanese to show leadership and act sooner. 'I just think Australians are ready to see our country to show a flash of independence, strength and maturity by moving with the French and not huddling and waiting for the sanction that Britain would give us when Downing Street finally gets round to it,' he said. Mr Carr's comments have been criticised internally, with Labor Friends of Israel co-convener Nick Dyrenfurth calling on Mr Carr to 'promptly apologise' for the overly provocative comments. Dr Dyrenfurth said that while he was 'gravely concerned with the Netanyahu government's actions in Gaza,' there is 'no genocide taking place'. 'Mr Carr is wilfully lying and deliberately stoking community tensions with extremist language and deliberately provoking his former friends in Australia's Jewish community with Nazi slurs,' he said. The first Muslim MP, and demoted Labor minister Ed Husic also called on Mr Albanese to commit to recognising Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly, stating France has made the decision without needing prior confirmation on the demilitarisation of Hamas. 'Hamas absolutely has to be held to account, but the Netanyahu government, in the way that they've held Hamas to account and impacted and killed nearly 60,000 innocent Palestinians. That is unacceptable,' Mr Husic told Sky. He said resolving the conflict in Gaza was also about recognising the 'humanity of Israelis and Palestinians,' Mr Husic added, stating that 'a lot of Israelis suffered deeply on October 7, and a lot of Palestinians have suffered ever since'. 'Bringing peace to them is something that we can all throw our weight behind.'
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Disrespectful and derogatory': GP suspended for social media posts about abortion, gender and Covid
A conservative Christian GP has been found guilty of professional misconduct after complaints were raised over more than a decade worth of his 'offensive' social media posts about abortion, the LGBTQI+ community and Covid. Lawyers for Dr Jereth Kok have blasted Tuesday's ruling by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), saying it represents a 'deeply concerning shift in regulatory scope over personal speech'. One post that landed Dr Kok in hot water was a satirical article by conservative Christian US website Babylon Bee titled 'Instead Of Traditional Warfare, Chinese Military Will Now Be Trained To Shout Wrong Pronouns At American Troops'. Instead Of Traditional Warfare, Chinese Military Will Now Be Trained To Shout Wrong Pronouns At American Troops â€' The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) March 20, 2021 VCAT found the post, re-shared by Dr Kok, was 'inconsistent' with the Medical Board's Code of Conduct as it 'failed to respect and be sensitive to gender diversity'. 'The Tribunal is comfortably satisfied that the post was denigrating, demeaning, disrespectful and derogatory to LGBTQI+ community as it trivialised reference to the identity issues of some in the LGBTQI+ community,' VCAT said in its decision. Dr Kok told the tribunal that he believed 'that the Bible very clearly teaches that homosexual conduct, which includes same-sex sexual activity and relationships, is immoral' and that 'the Bible obliges Christian believers to refrain from all immoral conduct, including homosexual conduct'. 'I have provided care to many gay and lesbian patients without ever disclosing my personal views to them,' he said in his witness statement. 'This was no more difficult for me than providing non-judgmental care to heterosexual patients having extramarital affairs (which I personally disapprove of) or even convicted criminals.' In other posts Dr Kok railed against abortion, describing it as the 'massacres of babies' and 'baby killing' and referring to medical practitioners who engage in the practice as 'butchers' and 'serial contract killers'. Dr Kok told the tribunal that as a Christian 'I believe that life and personhood begin at conception' and 'I abhor the way our society conceals the truth about abortion by using deceitful euphemisms'. VCAT upheld complaints against a number of the posts, finding that they denigrated, demeaned and slurred medical practitioners who provide abortion treatment to patients. The tribunal found Dr Kok had similarly demeaned doctors who 'recognise that people who identify as transgender are not suffering from a mental health condition'. In various posts on the topic of gender dysphoria, Dr Kok had described transgender surgery as 'medical butchery' and 'mutilation of genitals' and labelled doctors who performed the procedures as 'crooks'. Dr Kok, who previously practised at a clinic in Melbourne's outer suburbs, was suspended by the Medical Board of Australia in August 2019 after anonymous complaints were raised about his social media activity dating back to 2010. More than six years on, VCAT last week upheld Dr Kok's suspension, finding 54 of the 85 offending posts amounted to misconduct under the Health Practitioner National Law (Victoria) Act 2009. VCAT found Dr Kok had also 'expressed sentiments of violence and made derogatory statements' towards racial and religious groups, despite acknowledging that a number may have been 'meant by Dr Kok in some sort of humorous way'. In a number of inflammatory posts — which Dr Kok insisted were satirical or sarcastic in nature — he called for the colonisation of 'primitive yellow people and black people' and described Chinese people as 'ching chongs'. 'It's time that those primitive yellow people and black people progressed,' Dr Kok wrote in one post, which came in response to the 2015 Obergefell decision in the US legalising same-sex marriage. 'If they won't do it by themselves, we ought to colonise them, that we might educate them in equality, social justice and human rights.' In another post, Dr Kok replied to a friend who had joked about 'ordering some Zyklon B from Amazon' and 'inviting the inferior races over' for a shower with the hashtag '#illridewithyou'. Dr Kok told the tribunal the post was in the context of the December 2017 terror attack in Melbourne and 'specifically, [the fact that] anybody who expresses concern about religious inspired terrorism will be labelled a 'Nazi''. VCAT also found Dr Kok 'denigrated, demeaned and slurred persons that accepted and considered it right to follow Covid-19 public health orders' and 'in relation to Covid-19, drew on and legitimised anti-vaccination and vaccine hesitancy rhetoric and contained misleading information regarding vaccines'. Dr Kok had railed against 'authoritarian' lockdown measures and likened taking the Covid vaccine to playing 'Russian roulette', among other similar comments. 'Some posts provide information about important health matters, but the information is not balanced or unbiased and does not show an understanding of public health principles including for health promotion, disease prevention and control,' VCAT found. The Human Rights Law Alliance (HRLA), which represented Dr Kok, said the tribunal gave little weight to constitutional or freedom-of-speech protections despite the 'political, religious and satirical nature' of the posts. HRLA added that the decision 'sets a concerning precedent for freedom of speech in Australia, particularly for professionals who hold Christian or conservative beliefs'. 'Dr Kok is disappointed that he was unsuccessful with his submissions to the Tribunal that free speech principles should be upheld and that Medical Board discipline should relate to clinical conduct and should not police religious and political expression,' HRLA said in a statement to on behalf of Dr Kok. 'Dr Kok of course respects the Tribunal's decision and is taking advice on the decision and will now turn to preparing for the sanction hearing that will follow these findings.' HRLA noted the case 'did not relate to his medical practice, as the Tribunal acknowledged'. 'Dr Kok accepts that some of the language he used in his social media posts was regrettable and on reflection he would not use that language again,' the statement said. 'He notes that this relates to only a proportion of the posts that were impugned by the Medical Board and that he communicated this acceptance to the Tribunal at his hearing.' Dr Kok was 'heartened that the Tribunal found that the Medical Board's allegations of misconduct were not satisfied for over one third of the social media posts subject to allegations', HRLA added. 'Many of the posts were found to be purely political or religious commentary and so fell outside the Medical Board's remit. Dr Kok was also pleased that the worst allegations suggesting that he supported genocide and violence were not made out and that the Tribunal recognised that many comments used satire and sarcasm.' Christian political party Family First on Monday condemned the ruling, describing it as a 'gross injustice and a chilling attack on freedom of speech'. Family First said it would fight to repeal 'similar anti-free speech laws' in all states and would field candidates at upcoming elections in South Australia, Victoria and NSW. 'Dr Kok has harmed no patient. His only 'crime' was to express his views online — many of them satirical or Christian in nature — and for that, he has been punished with the loss of his medical career,' Family First national director Lyle Shelton said in a statement. 'This is not justice, it is un-Australian. This is Victoria's 'ministry of truth' enforcing ideological conformity and crushing dissent.'
