Anne Webster

Biography

Anne Elizabeth Webster, formerly known as Anne Smithers, is an Australian politician and member of the House of Representatives since the 2019 federal election. She represents the Division of Mallee in Victoria and is a member of the National Party. Before entering politics, she worked as a social worker and non-profit executive.

Webster received her education at La Trobe University, where she studied sociology and history. She later earned a Bachelor of Social Work with honors and a diploma of Associate in Music, Australia. Webster taught music and worked as a professional seamstress and image consultant for several years before earning her Ph.D. at the Australian National University in 2018. Her doctoral thesis, titled “The Legacy, Legality and Legitimacy of Adopting Out - Examining the legitimacy of adoption through birth mother experiences,” focused on adoption.

Before entering politics, Webster was a social worker in Mildura. She served as chair of the board of the Mallee Accommodation and Support Program (MASP) after being elected to the board in 2005. In 2011, Webster founded Zoe Support, an organization assisting young mothers with education. For her work with the organization, she was named “Citizen of the Year” by the Mildura Rural City Council in 2019.

Webster won National Party preselection for the Division of Mallee in January 2019, replacing the retiring MP Andrew Broad. She defeated five other candidates over three rounds of voting. She retained Mallee for the Nationals at the 2019 federal election with a small negative swing on the two-party-preferred count. However, the party’s primary vote halved from 56 percent to 28 percent, with large swings to the Liberal Party and independents Jason Modica and Ray Kingston.

Webster called for a balanced approach but expressed opposition to Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh’s support for a green net zero carbon emissions policy, after revelations emerged that he attempted to disaffiliate from the federal National Party to protest Barnaby Joyce’s successful leadership challenge.

Webster is one of eleven MPs in the 46th Parliament of Australia who possess a Ph.D. In October 2021, she made a controversial claim during a television interview, stating that like solar energy facilities, wind turbines fail to generate power in the dark.

In September 2020, Webster was awarded $350,000 in damages following a defamation suit against Karen Brewer, a conspiracy theorist who alleged on social media that Webster and her husband were “participants in a secretive criminal network involved in child sexual abuse”. Her husband and the non-profit organization they co-founded were awarded similar amounts.