{"id":97531,"date":"2025-08-26T16:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/97531\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T16:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:34:10","slug":"australias-youngest-senator-charlotte-walker-delivers-candid-first-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/97531\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s youngest senator Charlotte Walker delivers candid ‘first speech’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The nation’s youngest senator has opened up about her battle against bullying as well as her concerns about her home state’s algal bloom during a passionate and personal speech to federal parliament, in which she also discussed the need for cultural change in the wake of South Australia’s recent domestic violence royal commission.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Walker secured her parliamentary seat at the May federal election, on the same day she turned 21<\/a>, after earlier earning the usually unwinnable third spot on the ballot on Labor’s SA Senate ticket.<\/p>\n

Senator Walker is affiliated with the party’s left faction, and addressed the senate last month on the subjects of housing affordability, cost of living and climate change.<\/p>\n

Australia’s youngest senator facing misogyny and criticism<\/a><\/p>\n

Charlotte Walker says she has faced both misogyny and criticism in her short time as South Australian senator, but says it’s all worth it to be a politician.<\/p>\n

In an address on Monday which she said would enter the record as “technically my first speech” to parliament, Senator Walker \u2014 who said she grew up in Yankalilla and Normanville on South Australia’s algae-ravaged Fleurieu Peninsula \u2014 elaborated on the last of those themes.<\/p>\n

She shared her concerns about the bloom, which she said was “smothering ecosystems that until now have been virtually pristine” and “threatening our valuable fishing and aquaculture industries”.<\/p>\n

“Right now, South Australians are walking on beaches and seeing dead fish, rays and octopuses from a climate change induced algal bloom,” she said.<\/p>\n

“So much needs to be done to support environmental climate resilience into the future so our coast can bounce back.<\/p>\n

“In 2050 I won’t be in my late 90s, like some who want to abandon net zero; my friends and I will be in our 40s, and we demand an inhabitable planet.”<\/p>\n

Senator Walker, who has previously spoken of the misogynistic trolling to which she has been subjected following her electoral victory<\/a>, praised the recent work of former Democrats leader and domestic violence royal commissioner Natasha Stott Despoja, whom Senator Walker acknowledged had also begun her parliamentary career as a young senator.<\/p>\n

\"Senator<\/p>\n

Senator Walker shared her concerns about the state’s algal bloom. (ABC News: Brendan Esposito)<\/p>\n

South Australia’s Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence last week handed down 136 recommendations.<\/p>\n

The state government has committed to adopting seven of the recommendations and said it would “dutifully consider and examine” all of them before committing to further responses.<\/p>\n

In her speech, Senator Walker shared concerns about those who had grown up “exposed to violent pornography and misogyny online” and the social impact of “these views of women” being “normalised”.<\/p>\n

“Domestic violence is a deep shame in our community, and I want to talk about it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“How do we better recognise the experience of kids exposed to violence, and how do we change those conversations in the pubs and sports clubs?<\/p>\n

“I note that [Ms Stott Despoja] talks about the importance of looking at both the experience of children and the need to change community conversations.”<\/p>\n

Bullying ‘hurts so many kids’<\/p>\n

Senator Walker, who referred to herself as “the youngest member of the Labor class of 2025 by a long way”, also shone a light on some of her own very personal experiences, including her depression.<\/p>\n

“In sharing this today, I am telling all of you some of what I’ve only told a handful of people,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t tell people about my depression because of the deep shame I feel about it and because of the perception of being ‘damaged goods’.”<\/p>\n

She said the first step to recovery “was admitting that I needed help”.<\/p>\n

“During my term in parliament, I want to shine a light on how childhood experiences like mine can continue to affect your mental health into adulthood and I want to explore meaningful ways to address this,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Senator<\/p>\n

Senators Walker and Penny Wong hug in parliament on the occasion of a speech by the former in July. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)<\/p>\n

Another childhood experience Senator Walker highlighted was one “that hurts so many kids: bullying”, which she said had impacted her life in a range of ways.<\/p>\n

“The bullying was enough to force me out of my local public school,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Mum scraped by, paying private school tuition fees and not buying things for herself, to support me and my brother.<\/p>\n

“We rarely took holidays, and, since starting this job, I think I’ve probably flown on more planes than our whole family has combined during my life.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The nation’s youngest senator has opened up about her battle against bullying as well as her concerns about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6343,64,63,40316,71550,68,39043,15054,19182,44,9801,30954,71551,1124],"class_list":["post-97531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-algal-bloom","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bullying","tag-charlotte-walker","tag-climate-change","tag-domestic-violence","tag-first-speech","tag-net-zero","tag-news","tag-parliament","tag-royal-commission","tag-senator","tag-south-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}