Colleen Hartland

Early career

Hartland is a Western Suburbs resident and activist who rose to prominence as a leader of the community campaign against the storage of toxic chemicals at Coode Island during the 1990s. She was a foundation member of the Hazardous Materials Action group (HAZMAG) and was a member of Environment Effects Committees on West Point Wilson, Point Lillias and the proposed toxic dump at Werribee. Hartland chaired the Maribyrnong Drug Strategy Committee for three years. She was also employed as a social worker by the Western Region Health Centre.

Hartland has previously worked as a cook in Parliament during the term of the Cain/Kirner Governments.

Local politics

Hartland was elected as Councillor for Sheok Ward in the Maribyrnong City Council in 2003, and served on the council until 2005 as one of the first Victorian Greens elected into council.

State politics

Hartland won a seat for the Victorian Greens in the Western Metropolitan Region of the Victorian Legislative Council in the 2006 State election, elected to the final spot, narrowly beating the Labor candidate after a vote recount. She increased her vote from 8.93% in 2006 to 11.66% in the 2010 State Election to hold her seat for another term. In the 2014 Victorian State Election, Hartland was re-elected, this time to the fourth position in the Western Metropolitan Region with 9.89% of first preference votes. This was despite nearly twice as many candidates contesting the region and both the Labor Party and Liberal Party suffering larger swings against them.

On 13 June 2017, it was announced in an email to party members that Hartland, and state Greens leader Greg Barber, would not be contesting their Legislative Council seats at the 2018 Victorian state election.