senator Larissa Waters Contact information

Larissa Joy Waters was born on 8 February 1977 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to Australian parents who were studying and working in Canada at the time. However, her family returned to Australia when she was just 11 months old, and she grew up in Brisbane.

Waters has a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Laws from Griffith University, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the New South Wales College of Law. She began her legal career as a legal researcher at the Queensland Land and Resources Tribunal (the predecessor of the Land Court of Queensland) from 2000 to 2001, and then worked as a lawyer at Freehills from 2001 to 2002. From 2002 to 2011, she worked as a lawyer with the Environmental Defenders Office.

In 2006, Waters ran as the Greens’ candidate for the Brisbane Central electorate in the Queensland state election, competing against then-Premier Peter Beattie. She secured almost 5,000 votes, but was not elected. She also ran for office in the 2007 federal election as the lead Senate candidate for the Greens in Queensland, where the party received 7.3 percent of the statewide vote, but this was not enough to secure her election.

Waters continued her political career, running for the seat of Mount Coot-tha in the 2009 Queensland state election, which was held by the sitting Treasurer of Queensland, Andrew Fraser of the Labor Party. She polled 23.1 percent on first preferences, with Ronan Lee (who received 25.9 percent in Indooroopilly) being the only Greens candidate with a higher percentage.

In the 2010 federal election, Waters was placed first on the Greens’ senate ticket and was elected with 12.8 percent of the vote, an increase of 5.4 percentage points. In May 2015, she was elected to the Greens’ “leadership triumvirate” and was made a co-deputy leader alongside Scott Ludlam, with Richard Di Natale replacing Christine Milne as the party leader. She was re-elected to the Senate in the 2016 double-dissolution election, winning a three-year term with 6.9 percent of the vote.

However, Waters was forced to resign from the Senate on 18 July 2017, during the parliamentary eligibility crisis, after it was revealed that she held dual Canadian-Australian citizenship, making her ineligible to be elected under Section 44 of the Australian Constitution. Her resignation followed that of her fellow Greens co-deputy leader, Scott Ludlam, who had also resigned from the Senate over dual citizenship. Waters had been born to Australian parents in Canada and had believed she was solely an Australian citizen, but later discovered she had held dual citizenship since birth.

Waters announced on 8 August 2017 that she had renounced her Canadian citizenship and intended to stand for Greens preselection to return to parliament at the next federal election. However, the High Court ruled on 27 October 2017 that Waters had been invalidly elected.

her return to the Senate. Waters has since been an active member of parliament, focusing on issues such as climate change, the environment, and social justice. She has been a vocal advocate for stronger action on climate change and has criticized the Australian government for not doing enough to reduce carbon emissions. Waters has also been a strong supporter of marriage equality, publicly stating her support for the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in Australia. In addition to her work in politics, Waters has been involved in various community organizations and campaigns, including the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and the Refugee Action Collective. Her dedication to social and environmental justice has made her a well-respected figure in Australian politics and a powerful voice for change.