Natasha Stott Despoja

Early life

Stott Despoja was born in Adelaide, the daughter of Shirley Stott Despoja, an Australian-born journalist with English heritage, and Mario Despoja, an immigrant from Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia). She was educated at Stradbroke Primary and Pembroke School and, later, the University of Adelaide where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1991. She was active in student politics, becoming president of the Students' Association of the University of Adelaide (SAUA) and serving as state women's officer for the National Union of Students in South Australia. She then worked as a political adviser and researcher to Democrat senators John Coulter (SA) and Cheryl Kernot (Qld).

Personal life

Stott Despoja married former Liberal party advisor, Ian Smith. Her husband is considered to be one of Australia's most influential political lobbyists, is the founder of consultancy Bespoke Approach and has been described by ''The Power Index'' as "an unabashed Tory".

Career

On 29 November 1995, Stott Despoja was appointed to the casual vacancy created by the resignation of Coulter due to ill-health. She completed the remainder of Coulter's term and was re-elected at the 1996 election and 2001 election.

Stott Despoja was elected to the party's deputy leadership in 1997, under Meg Lees. At the time, she was party spokesperson for parliamentary portfolios including Science and Technology, Attorney General, Higher Education, IT, Employment and Youth Affairs.

During the passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) legislation in 1999, Stott Despoja, along with Andrew Bartlett, split from the party's other senators by opposing the package, which had been negotiated by Lees and prime minister John Howard. She said that she refused to break promises made by the party during the election. The party had gone to the election stating that they would work with whichever party formed government to improve their tax package. The Australian Democrats traditionally permitted parliamentary representatives to cast a conscience vote on any issue but, on this occasion, close numbers in the Senate placed greater pressure than usual on the dissenters.

In 1999, she was appointed a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Parliamentary leadership and deposition

Stott Despoja was elected leader on 6 April 2001, replacing Meg Lees, who resigned from the party in July 2002. Further public criticism and disputes between Democrat senators resulted in Stott Despoja's resignation as leader on 21 August 2002, following presentation by four of her six colleagues (those who had earlier enabled the passage of the GST) with a ten-point 'reform' agenda proposed by John Cherry.

After 16 months in the job, Senator Stott Despoja finally decided she couldn't heal the rifts which had divided her seven-member party room. Her colleagues were apparently stunned by the resignation, but shouldn't have been. Four of them had brought the crisis to a head, forcing Stott Despoja to accept a package of reforms she was utterly opposed to.

She announced her resignation in a speech to the Senate, concluding with a "pledge to bring the party back home to the members again", and referring to her reluctance over colleagues' attitude towards her.

One colleague, Senator Murray, has said that he does not believe in ultimatums, yet one of his earliest communiques to the public and to me was to `shape up or ship out'. Some commentators have mistaken my relative public silence for weak leadership — my refusal to strike back aggressively, particularly in the public domain, as weakness. But I still believe that politics can be a civil discourse, and I choose not to inflame with returned invective.

She was replaced as leader by Bartlett following a membership ballot interval during which Brian Greig acted in the position.

In 2004, Stott Despoja took 11 weeks' leave from the Senate following the birth of her first child before returning to full duties as Democrat spokesperson on, inter alia, Higher Education, Status of Women, and Work and Family.

During her political career she also introduced 24 Private Member's Bills on issues including paid maternity leave, the Republic, genetic privacy, stem cells, captioning and same sex marriage. Stott Despoja regularly attends the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Retirement from Parliament

On 22 October 2006, after undergoing emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy, she announced that she would not be contesting the 2007 election to extend her term beyond 30 June 2008. She was the Australian Democrats' longest-serving senator. Her retirement coincided with the ending of her party's federal parliamentary representation; the Democrats' support had collapsed after 2002 and they won no seats at the 2004 and 2007 half-senate elections.

On 13 June 2011, Stott Despoja was named a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the Parliament of Australia, particularly as a Senator for South Australia, through leadership roles with the Australian Democrats, to education, and as a role model for women.

Later activities

She is a regular commentator in The Advertiser, a casual host on ABC 891 radio and is the Thursday night guest panellist on Channel 10's The Project. She was previously a columnist for the Australian business news website Business Spectator.

Stott Despoja is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at The University of Adelaide. Each year, she teaches winter school at The University of Adelaide with former Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, 'The Practice of Politics'.

Currently Stott Despoja is a board member of non-profit organisations the South Australian Museum and the Museum of Australian Democracy (MOAD). In June 2013, she retired from the Advertising Standards Board. She was a deputy-chair at beyondblue (Australia's national depression initiative) until she took on the role of ambassador for women and girls. As of 21 July 2015, Stott Despoja is a Patron of the Burnet Institute (Australia's largest virology and communicable disease research institute) and was a board member from 2008 to 2013.

She is an Ambassador for Ovarian Cancer Australia (OCA), The Orangutan Project (TOP); secondbite; and the HIV/AIDS anti-stigma campaign, ENUF, (along with her husband Ian Smith). She is on the Advisory Panel of the Australian Privacy Foundation (APF).

In the past few years, Stott Despoja has also been an election observer for the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Nigeria (2011); has visited Burkina Faso for Oxfam (2012); and has been to Laos (2011) and Burma (2013) with The Burnet Institute.

In July 2013, Stott Despoja was named Chair of the Foundation to Prevent Violence against women and their children, a joint initiative of the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments which will be based in Melbourne. The foundation aims to educate the community by building partnerships with business, philanthropic organisations and government.

In December 2013, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced the appointment of Stott Despoja as Australia's new ambassador for women and girls.

Stott Despoja was mentioned in June 2014 as a possible replacement for Kevin Scarce as the next Governor of South Australia, however Hieu Van Le was chosen.