Meet Senator Jordon Steele-John, the youngest sitting member of parliament who was made senator at only age 23.
Steele-John, besides having a cool last name, is a disability advocate and member for The Greens in Western Australia. He rose to the position after Scott Ludlam resigned after discovering he had dual New Zealand citizenship (you may remember this was the catalyst for the eligibility crisis that led to several resignations, high court challenges, and by-elections thanks to Section 44 of the constitution).
Since then he’s been hard at work.
In March 2019 he was named the McKinnon Emerging Political Leader of the Year due to his disability advocacy.
He has pushed for lowering the voting age to 16 to empower young people.
He campaigned for the Royal Commission into Violence and Abuse against People with Disability, a Greens motion that passed in the Senate in early February - despite resistance from some of the Coalition.
As is to be expected from a Greens member he’s voted strongly for action on climate change including supporting a carbon price, a fast transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, government action on animal/plant extinctions, renewable energy investments, protecting the Great Barrier Reef, opposing the Adani coal mine, and increased investment in the coal industry.
He’s also voted for getting kids out of the cruelty of indefinite detention, protecting Aboriginal heritage sites, the right to protest, restricting gambling, ending the horror of detention on Manus/Nauru, voted for doctor initiated medical transfers so refugees can finally get proper medical care, criminalising revenge porn, increasing housing affordability, increasing Aboriginal land rights, and creating a federal Anti-Corruption Commission.
He’s a pro-environment, pro-refugee pro-diversity, anti-corruption, disability advocate who understands the struggles facing the youth of today. What more could you want from a candidate?
That’s why I hope that as many people as possible vote for him May 18th because as a Western Australian I want people like him representing me in parliament, not racist old out of touch climate deniers.
