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Associated Press

A woman who turned 21 on the day of Australia’s federal election in May has been declared the nation’s youngest ever senator.
And like many female candidates who run for election in Australia, Charlotte Walker was not expected to win.
The former union official won the governing centre-left Labor Party’s third Senate seat for South Australia state in a complicated rank order voting system. A party’s third choice rarely wins.
She had the lowest vote count of the six newly elected senators for the state. The Australian Electoral Commission officially declared the poll Tuesday.
The new job will be a “big adjustment,” said Walker, who starts her six-year term July 1. A federal lawmaker’s base salary is more than 205,000 Australian dollars ($133,000) annually.
“There’s a few feelings. Obviously, there’s a lot of pressure,” Walker told Australian Broadcasting Corporation after the results were announced late on Monday.
I want to show young people, particularly young women, that this is achievable
Charlotte Walker, newly elected Australian senator
“I want to do a good job for South Australians, but I also want to show young people, particularly young women, that this is achievable and this is something that they can do also. I’m also really excited. Not many people my age get to … go to Canberra and have the ability to contribute in the way that I will,” she added.
Before Walker, the youngest senator was Jordon Steele-John of the Greens party, who was elected for Western Australia state in 2017 at the age of 23.
Australia’s youngest-ever federal lawmaker was Wyatt Roy, who was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010 at the age of 20. He lasted two three-year terms before he was voted out of his Queensland state seat.
Large swings at elections as occurred May 3 typically bring a larger proportion of women into the parliament in seats that their parties hadn’t realistically expected to win. Often the newcomers lose their seats when votes swing back at the next election.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expects 57 per cent of Labor lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives will be women when the new parliament first sits on July 22. The proportion of women was 52 per cent during Albanese’s first term in government.
Australian governments usually lose seats in their second term. Albanese leads the first federal government not to lose a single seat at an election since 1966. Labor is expected to hold 94 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, up from 78 in the last parliament.
Australian National University political historian Frank Bongiorno said unexpected swings can put women candidates into parliament after seeking apparently unwinnable seats.
But Bongiorno said Labor had been working on increasing women’s representation since the party introduced a quota in 1994 that stated 35 per cent of candidates in winnable seats had to be female.
“The fact that we now have not 50 per cent, but 57 per cent is partly a function of obviously just the size of the swing, but it is also, I think, very deliberate changes that have occurred within the Labor Party over about 30 years from what was a very male-dominated culture and environment,” Bongiorno said.
The odds had been stacked against Walker being elected as her party’s third choice in South Australia, Bongiorno said.


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Australia

Australia’s youngest-ever senator is 21 – and she wasn’t expected to win

Newly elected Australian Senator Charlotte Walker speaks during an interview in Adelaide on Monday. Photo: Australian Broadcasting Corporation via AP

Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra is the meeting place of the legislative body of the country’s federal system of government. Photo: AP

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Anthony Albanese is the first Australian prime minister in two decades to win re-election Photo: AAP/dpa

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Kaarta Gar-up Lookout in Kings Park before an Australia-China CEO Roundtable in Perth in June 2024. Photo: Pool via Reuters

A woman looks at her phone as she holds a sign advertising Australian-made UGG boots for sale in central Sydney on April 10. Australia has been hit with a blanket 10 per cent tariff on goods exported to the United States. Photo: AFP

A Philippine Marine salutes in front of US, Philippine, Australia, Japan and South Korea flags during a joint military exercise in Manila in October 2024. Australia is expected to boost economic and security ties with Asia. Photo: AFP

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Australia’s re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives for his swearing-in ceremony at Government House in Canberra on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on May 5. Photo: AFP

Chinese Premier Li Qiang (left) and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shake hands after making opening remarks at Parliament House in Canberra on June 17 last year. Photo: Reuters

Australia’s two-party system faces its biggest challenge yet: young people

School students attend a climate rally in Melbourne. For the first time, baby boomers will be outnumbered by millennials and Gen Z voters at Australia’s next federal elections.  Photo: AFP

Newly built blocks of flats are seen in the Sydney suburb of Mascot. Millions of Australians are struggling with soaring housing and other costs. Photo: AFP

Current Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (centre) celebrates with his family after winning the 2022 election. Photo: EPA-EFE

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The odds had been stacked against Charlotte Walker being elected, a political historian said, but she did it anyway


The odds had been stacked against Charlotte Walker being elected, a political historian said, but she did it anyway.


South Australia

Anthony Albanese

Australia’s youngest-ever senator is 21 – and she wasn’t expected to win

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The odds had been stacked against Charlotte Walker being elected, a political historian said, but she did it anyway

The odds had been stacked against Charlotte Walker being elected, a political historian said, but she did it anyway