Residence Sydney, Australia Alma mater University of Sydney Name Dianne Hiles | Occupation Human rights activist Nationality Australian | |
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Political party Australian Greens | ||
Dianne Hiles AM is an Australian activist and politician with the Australian Greens. As part of a long history in refugee rights activism, Dianne co-founded ChilOut which has advocated for the release of children and families from Immigration Detention centres for over 12 years. In recognition of her work with this organisation as well as with Amnesty International, Board of A Just Australia, the Evatt Foundation, and her dedication to a multitude of human rights issues, Hiles was invited to become a Member of the Order of Australia in 2010. In this year she also completed her Masters in Human Rights at the University of Sydney. Dianne is currently the Australian Greens candidate for the federal Division of Sydney.
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Professional career
Apart from co-founding a civil society organisation, Hiles is a qualified accountant who has worked with Information Technology for 30 years. Dianne has also participated in extensive volunteer work from suicide prevention to financial counseling. As an employee for the Evatt Foundation she was introduced to modern political economy writings.
Political career
Following the Australian federal election 2010, Dianne was critical of the government relapse and allowance of over 1000 children to be detained in Immigration Detention and has since worked closely as an Electorate Officer for Greens' MP Jamie Parker. Hiles' has been critical of the bipartisan agreement of the ALP and LNP to off-shore processing and the denial of human rights under International Law as well as questioning the validity of these policies which have huge operative costs and have delivered poor results. As a single parent, Dianne's primary concerns for the Division of Sydney are housing affordability and the inadequate provisioning of social housing and educational facilities particularly for early childhood which disproportionately affect women. Hiles also plans to continue her work protecting the rights of asylum seekers as well as advocating for genuine action on Climate Change and moving towards 100% Renewable Energy use with an emphasis on alternative economic policy.