Sarah Hanson Young

Early life and education

Hanson-Young was born in Melbourne, and grew up near Orbost in East Gippsland. She has worked on several community projects in Orbost including the establishment of the Orbost Youth Centre. In 1999 she was awarded the Australia Day Young Citizen of the Year award for Gippsland, Victoria.

She graduated from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Social Sciences in 2002. While studying she was Environment Officer from 2001 to 2002, and then President from 2002 to 2003, of the Students' Association of the University of Adelaide.

Career

In 2004, Hanson-Young worked as a bank teller. From 2004 until she took parliamentary office in 2008, she worked for Amnesty International as Campaign Manager for South Australia and the Northern Territory.

As of 2006, she was studying for a postgraduate law degree.

Prior to her entry into politics, she also worked as media advisor to Mark Parnell (SA Greens) in the 2006 South Australian election and was a campaigner with Justice for Refugees (SA).

Political career

Hanson-Young was a candidate for the South Australian Legislative Council in the 2006 state election, ranked fourth on the Greens' ticket.

Hanson-Young was elected senator for South Australia at the 2007 federal election. She was the first Greens senator to be elected in that state, the youngest person—at 25—ever elected to the Australian senate, and the youngest woman ever elected to the Australian parliament (Natasha Stott-Despoja was younger at her first sitting, but older at the time of her election). Although the South Australian Green primary vote remained relatively unchanged, preferences from the Australian Labor Party provided the required quota for a Greens senator.

As of 2016 Hanson-Young's portfolio responsibilities within the Greens include finance and trade, arts, education, youth, and water and the Murray-Darling Basin.

Hanson-Young became the focus of attention on 18 June 2009 when the Senate President ordered the removal of her two-year-old daughter from the Senate chamber during a division. At the time, the rules of parliament did not allow for senators or members to bring their children into the chamber. Public reaction on the matter was divided, and ignited a debate on accommodating children and their carers in the workplace. Despite a delay of seven years, the incident led directly to a change in the rules of both the House of Representatives and Senate, which now allow MPs and senators to briefly care for their children in the chamber.

Hanson-Young challenged Christine Milne for the Green deputy leadership in October 2010 but was unsuccessful. Following the resignation of Australian Greens leader Bob Brown in 2012, she was again nominated for the deputy leadership but lost by an undisclosed margin to Adam Bandt. Hanson-Young was re-elected to the Senate at the 2013 federal election and again at the 2016 double dissolution election.

In December 2013, Hanson-Young, along with Senators Louise Pratt (ALP) and Sue Boyce (LNP) established a cross-party working group on marriage equality.

In August 2016, Hanson-Young was replaced as the Greens' Immigration spokesperson by Nick McKim. She retained the senior portfolio areas of education and finance.

Personal life

Hanson-Young was married to former local government councillor Zane Young; the couple divorced in 2011. They have one child together.