To call Natasha Stott Despoja a trailblazer in Australian politics is quite the understatement. Appointed to the Senate at the age of 26, Natasha went on to lead the Australian Democrats. Missing Perspectives caught up with this icon to discuss her experience in Parliament at such a young age, and the legislative achievements including introducing paid parental leave.
So what was it like being in Parliament as the youngest woman, at that point in time, to ever serve in federal Parliament?
“You can probably make some guesses now having seen some of the exposés on how Parliament treats women generally and young people specifically, but also all of that treatment is compounded depending on whether or not you are from a diverse background,” Natasha tells Missing Perspectives.
“It’s multiplied for women of colour, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, women with disabilities, trans women. It’s extraordinary to think of just how slow our Parliament has been to recognise women equally and respectfully.
“For me, it was a combination of really ridiculous stereotypes to which I was subjected. But at the same time, I was so focused on making a difference that I tried not to let any of those issues debilitate me,” she says. It was all about making the world a safer, greener, more respectfully equal place. I’ve always been imbued with the notion that particularly education is the great equaliser.”
Natasha grew up in a household with a single parent mum, who also had a disability. “My mum is deaf. So she literally taught me to speak up. I watched her life as a journalist, a professional woman who was really marginalised because of her hearing. And so she taught me that it’s not enough to make it yourself,” she explains.
“It’s all about making sure that you bring people along with you and you work for the rights of others…So many of my friends were like, my god, stop talking about young people being represented and reflected and do something about it. So I ran for office and the first time I lost spectacularly.”
A year or so later, Natasha entered on a Senate vacancy and was then elected – in her own right – and at just 26 years of age. “So that was the beginning of a long but heady, very full-on life for almost 13 years,” she says. “It was tough. I’m not going to pretend it was easy, but I’m proud to have survived and in some small way hope to have made a difference.”
She says that becoming a mother while a Senator taught her very quickly that Parliament was not a family friendly place (no surprises there). “There was no childcare, for example, and people were very judgmental about me being a mother in politics. Not everyone – some people found it really humanising to see a baby around the place. But overall, it was, I think, still very dark ages, even in the early noughties when I had my kids,” she says.
“I remember when I came back to Parliament for the first time after having Conrad, it was early 2005 and the newspaper, The Australian, put this picture of me with my beautiful three-month-old baby on the, I think front page or second page for International Women’s Day. And I was so proud. I felt like, I’ve done this and look at my beautiful child. And the next day, my gosh, the vitriol, there were people writing letters saying, ‘If she cared for her child, she would have quit politics’….It was quite shattering to think that so many of us judged each other when we know that, you know, there’s no perfect scenario. Families do and juggle the best we can. The perfect life is so elusive.”
Natasha does laugh about some iconic moments she had when raising children in Parliament. One night when child-care wasn’t available, the Senate decided to sit really late. “I was like, no, I got this. I can change nappies and do speeches. So I left my child in the office because we’d all been expected to leave. We’re all packed and ready to go. My baby was there with my beautiful staff and I ran downstairs to give a speech and I just thought, hey, I’m rocking this. I’m a mother. I’m a senator. I’ve got this. And then I looked down and I saw poo on my dress. My God,” she laughs.
The vitriol and judgment Natasha faced for raising kids while working as a Senator put her on a path of advocating for the rights of women and girls. She notes that this led to her “chasing a range of mechanisms and supports for women, particularly women in lower paid positions”.
“Hence my strong advocacy for the first pay parental leave legislation, which I tabled in 2002,” she reflects. “So before my kids were even a twinkle in my eye, I have to admit these issues were really, really sharpened in focus for me.”
Surviving – and flourishing – in a tough environment is something Natasha continues to be proud of, but she’s also proud of legislation she introduced, such as paid parental leave, and the first same sex marriage bill that she introduced in 2006 with her colleague Andrew Bartlett.
“These things make me proud, but also I recognised early that change takes time and they did take time. I feel strongly about that. But I also feel that maintaining a commitment to principles is fundamentally important.”