Natasha Stott Despoja

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Natasha Jessica Stott Despoja (born 9 September 1969) is an Australian politician and former leader of the Australian Democrats. She has been a Democrats' Senator for South Australia since November 1995. She is the youngest woman ever elected to the Parliament of Australia.

1 Early life
2 Career
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Early life

Stott Despoja was born in Adelaide, the daughter of Shirley Stott, an Australian-born journalist with English heritage and Mario Despoja, an immigrant from Croatia. She was educated at Stradbroke Primary and Pembroke School, and later the University of Adelaide where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. 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 for Democrat Senators John Coulter and Cheryl Kernot.

[edit] Career

On 29 November 1995, Stott Despoja was appointed to the casual vacancy created by the resignation of Senator Coulter due to ill-health. She completed the remainder of Coulter's term, and was elected to her seat in 1996 and re-elected in 2001 with the highest personal vote of any Australian Senator.^[1]

Stott Despoja was elected Deputy Leader of the Australian Democrats in the 1997 result, with Senator Meg Lees as the Leader. During this period she held the party spokesperson role for a range of portfolios, including Science and Technology, Attorney General, Higher Education, IT, Employment, Youth Affairs.

During the passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) package in 1999, Stott Despoja, along with Andrew Bartlett, broke ranks with the other parliamentary members of the party by opposing the package which had been negotiated by Lees and Prime Minister John Howard. She refused to break the promises the party made during the election. The Australian Democrats party allows its parliamentary representatives to use a conscience vote, but close numbers in the Australian Senate raised the stakes.

Stott Despoja was elected leader on 6 April 2001, replacing Lees. Deposed leader Lees engaged in a number of public attacks in 2002, culminating in her resignation from the party in July 2002. Further public criticism and disputes amongst Democrat Senators ended in Stott Despoja's resignation of the leadership on 21 August 2002, when she failed to receive majority support from the party room following an ultimatum delivered by Senator John Cherry.^[2]^[3] She announced her resignation in a speech to the Senate, concluding with a "pledge to bring the party back home to the members again".^[4] None of the Senators who opposed her in the party room contested the subsequent leadership ballot, and the party's members voted to put Bartlett, Stott Despoja's strongest public supporter, in the leadership position. Stott Despoja's public profile and involvement with the party decreased significantly from this point, and Bartlett was unable to rebuild public support for the party, which suffered its worst ever result at the 2004 election.

During 2004, Stott Despoja took 11 weeks leave from the Senate following the birth of her first child, but subsequently returned to full duties as Democrats spokesperson on Higher Education, Status of Women, and Work and Family (amongst others).

In October 2006, Stott Despoja underwent emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy. On 22 October 2006, she announced that she would not be contesting the 2007 election, with her term expiring on 30 June 2008.^[5] If she serves out the entirety of her current term, she will become the longest-serving Democrats Senator.