Speaker 1: Already and this is this is the DAILYA, this is.
Speaker 2: The Daily oas Oh, now it makes sense. Good morning
Speaker 2: and welcome to the Daily Ours. It's Wednesday, the twenty
Speaker 2: seventh of August. I'm Harry Sekulich.
Speaker 3: I'm Lucy Tassel.
Speaker 2: Charlotte Walker is Australia's youngest senator and the youngest woman
Speaker 2: ever elected to the Federal Parliament. On election night, she
Speaker 2: celebrated her win and her twenty first birthday. This week,
Speaker 2: she gave her first official speech to Parliament, reflecting on
Speaker 2: her labor activism, personal health struggles and her politically minded family,
Speaker 2: which all paved her path to Canberra. I spoke to
Speaker 2: Charlotte Walker about what drove her to get into politics,
Speaker 2: what she wants to see change in Australia, and how
Speaker 2: young people can get more involved. But before we get
Speaker 2: into it, he's a quick word from our sponsor, Harry.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you were doing when you were
Speaker 3: twenty one. I can tell you I was not getting
Speaker 3: elected to parliament.
Speaker 2: I wasn't running either, Lucy. So I think Charlotte is
Speaker 2: probably blazing the trail for a lot of people.
Speaker 3: Possibly the most impressive twenty one year old in the country.
Speaker 3: Other than her astonishing run for parliament, what else can
Speaker 3: you tell us about her?
Speaker 2: Well, up until Monday night, we knew that Walker was
Speaker 2: the youngest senator ever elected. That's when she gave what's
Speaker 2: known as the first speech. And it might not be
Speaker 2: the actual time an MP or a senator actually speaks
Speaker 2: in the Parliament, but it's when they give a formal
Speaker 2: declaration that they announce who they are and where they
Speaker 2: come from. From Walker's speech, we learned quite a bit
Speaker 2: about her. She grew up in the regions of South Australia.
Speaker 2: She spoke about the influence of her grandparents, who were
Speaker 2: card carrying members of the Labor Party. So just so
Speaker 2: happens that she goes on to get elected as a
Speaker 2: Labor Senator runs in the family totally. And she gave
Speaker 2: a shout out to her uncle and I thought this
Speaker 2: was really interesting because he's a union organizer, and she
Speaker 2: joked that unlike many other people, she actually enjoys a
Speaker 2: political chat with her uncle around Christmas time, which was
Speaker 2: good for you know, quite amusing and quite unusual. Actually. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we also learned that she was diagnosed with a genetic
Speaker 2: heart condition recently and She also opened up about finding
Speaker 2: out she had depression after navigating her parents' divorce and
Speaker 2: bullying in primary school, which actually led to her moving
Speaker 2: schools when she was in year four. In the very
Speaker 2: few years since she's left high school, and there's only
Speaker 2: been three, she's worked for the Australian Services Union and
Speaker 2: in the state's parliament in South Australia. She also became
Speaker 2: the state president of Young Labor, which all led to
Speaker 2: her getting chosen as a candidate for the Senate at
Speaker 2: this year's election. And it was in a tricky spot
Speaker 2: as well. It's fairly rare for a party to win
Speaker 2: third place on the Senate ticket, but she pulled it off.
Speaker 3: Yeah wow, Well, I mean part of that huge landslide
Speaker 3: towards Labor that we saw at this election. You've mentioned
Speaker 3: that she's very young for the parliament. Is she the
Speaker 3: youngest ever MP? Like overall or just in the Senate.
Speaker 2: She's the youngest woman ever elected to the federal Parliament,
Speaker 2: but the title for the youngest ever MP or senator
Speaker 2: still remains in the hands of White Roy. How yes,
Speaker 2: he was twenty years old when he won the Queensland
Speaker 2: seat of Longmen for the Liberal Party in twenty ten. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's also worth mentioning that Roy was in the House
Speaker 2: of Representatives, which is the lower house, and Charlotte Walker
Speaker 2: was elected to the Senate, which is the upper house,
Speaker 2: the Red Chamber. It's got all sorts of nicknames. So
Speaker 2: she's made history as the youngest woman, the youngest senator,
Speaker 2: and I was really keen to talk to her about
Speaker 2: her path to politics and how she thinks young people
Speaker 2: should get more involved because we hear about the concerns
Speaker 2: when it comes to young people switching off from democracy
Speaker 2: and politics altogether. So with that in mind, here's our
Speaker 2: chat Walker. Thank you so much for joining the Daily Odds.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: So I just want to start on election night. We
Speaker 2: know that you were celebrating your twenty first birthday and
Speaker 2: the results also showed that you were likely to be
Speaker 2: elected as a Labor Senator for South Australia. Take me
Speaker 2: back to that night, described that whole experience, because there
Speaker 2: was obviously a lot going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, look, it had been a big day, being
Speaker 1: election day.
Speaker 4: I'd spent the whole day out on a polling booth
Speaker 4: talking to voters, so I made sure that I spent
Speaker 4: some time with my family and friends the day before,
Speaker 4: and then from there we went to the boothby election party,
Speaker 4: which was a great night of celebrating with lots of
Speaker 4: our amazing volunteers and yeah, then the results sort of
Speaker 4: started slowly rolling in that it was a great night.
Speaker 4: We had some great results. So yeah, there's truly no
Speaker 4: other way I would have wanted to celebrate my birthday.
Speaker 4: I don't think there's a better present than that.
Speaker 2: Did they put on a cake for you or anything?
Speaker 2: Or there was?
Speaker 1: There was, so it was organized without me knowing.
Speaker 4: Some of the people in the party had organized a
Speaker 4: couple of cakes and brought them out into the night,
Speaker 4: which was really nice. Everyone got to have a peace
Speaker 4: during the celebration, so it was a really lovely surprise.
Speaker 2: I want to rewind back to some of your earliest
Speaker 2: memories of being exposed to politics and what sort of
Speaker 2: sparked your interest. Was it conversations around the dinner table.
Speaker 2: Was it at school, like what some of your earlier
Speaker 2: memories there.
Speaker 1: I guess sort of growing up.
Speaker 4: You know, my direct relatives weren't members of the party,
Speaker 4: but we did sort of talk about issues of the
Speaker 4: day around the dinner table and it was a really
Speaker 4: safe place for me to express my opinion and speak
Speaker 4: up when I.
Speaker 1: Had a particular view. It really came when I was
Speaker 1: eighteen when I had to decide who I was going
Speaker 1: to vote for.
Speaker 4: My family had Labor values, but you know, there was
Speaker 4: no obligation to vote Labor, and I did some research
Speaker 4: and I decided that.
Speaker 1: I really really liked Labour's policies.
Speaker 4: And then sort of further from that, I decided that
Speaker 4: I was going to get out there and volunteer for them.
Speaker 4: My parents and family had done a little bit of
Speaker 4: volunteering for the party, and you know, I was really
Speaker 4: passionate about that policy and I wanted to get out
Speaker 4: there and talk to voters about it. So got involved
Speaker 4: with the party from the last federal election twenty twenty two,
Speaker 4: and then sort of from there, just got more and
Speaker 4: more involved from there and here I am today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we know that it can take a bit
Speaker 2: of time for the count to be finalized. You don't
Speaker 2: immediately know on election night that you will be a
Speaker 2: Senator for South Australia that you've won the election because
Speaker 2: there's a quota system. And we could do a whole
Speaker 2: podcast explaining what that is, But describe that moment when
Speaker 2: you first realized I'm actually going to be a senator,
Speaker 2: because the AAC count can take some time, but describe
Speaker 2: when you actually knew you were going to parliament.
Speaker 4: It was about three weeks after the election when the
Speaker 4: declaration was finally done and the preferences were distributed. That's
Speaker 4: sort of when I found out. So, you know, we
Speaker 4: were hopeful, but you don't want to get ahead of
Speaker 4: yourself with that type of thing, so we just remained positive.
Speaker 1: It was about it was, yeah, nearly near the end of.
Speaker 4: May, the declaration was made and it was just an
Speaker 4: absolute well wind got very quickly into doing some media interviews.
Speaker 4: I got to go to the declaration event and had,
Speaker 4: you know, my family and friends come and I got
Speaker 4: to speak and thank all of them. So yeah, it
Speaker 4: was sort of sort of up from there. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I think it took a couple of weeks, which the
Speaker 4: suspense was you know, it kind of killed me, but
Speaker 4: you know, we have a voting system that works that way,
Speaker 4: so you've just got to wait it out.
Speaker 2: You've posted this video ranking online insults directed at you,
Speaker 2: which is a fairly direct way to respond. We know
Speaker 2: that young people are also turning away from getting politically
Speaker 2: active and getting more involved. Do you think that online
Speaker 2: commentary like you've received could be contributing to people young
Speaker 2: people in particular, driving away from parliament women in particular.
Speaker 1: Look, I think I think there's a few layers to that.
Speaker 4: I think, and I know all of my colleagues would
Speaker 4: say the same thing, sort of regardless of your age,
Speaker 4: or your background, or what political party you're in. You know,
Speaker 4: being a politician, you get a lot of feedback, You
Speaker 4: get lots of great lots of great feedback, and then
Speaker 4: there's always going to be the negativity.
Speaker 1: That's sort of part of the job. You know.
Speaker 4: Some of the comments directed towards me have you know,
Speaker 4: they have been misogynistic, and I don't condone those comments
Speaker 4: at all. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but sort
Speaker 4: of from there, the reason that I did the videos
Speaker 4: because I wanted to show other young people.
Speaker 1: You know, when you.
Speaker 4: Get into politics, there is hate, but you can't you
Speaker 4: can't let it get you down and you can't let
Speaker 4: it define you. Because there are other people out there
Speaker 4: that don't believe that young people should be elected officials
Speaker 4: like me, and I've wanted to show the young people
Speaker 4: that if you did do this, like, yeah, there is
Speaker 4: going to be hate, but you can you can get
Speaker 4: through it. You can ignore that type of commentary. But
Speaker 4: I was just trying to bring a bit of light to,
Speaker 4: you know, some commentary that hasn't been great.
Speaker 1: I also think.
Speaker 4: Though, that you know, the media will show you that
Speaker 4: there will be a lot of negativity, but then you
Speaker 4: know there's less attention on the positivity, and there has
Speaker 4: genuinely been a lot.
Speaker 1: Of positivity from people.
Speaker 4: Often I get to meet lots of young people and
Speaker 4: older people at events, and when people coming up to me,
Speaker 4: it's genuinely very positive. So I think that's just the
Speaker 4: type of stuff you get online.
Speaker 2: What do you think is the best way to get
Speaker 2: more young people interested in politics, because we know that
Speaker 2: can be the first barrier, just getting people to care.
Speaker 4: I think it's interesting. I think young people at the
Speaker 4: moment are really engaged. I think we're seeing young people
Speaker 4: engage in politics more than they have before, which is
Speaker 4: really exciting.
Speaker 1: I know something that I try.
Speaker 4: And do when I'm wanting to get policy across to
Speaker 4: young people is try and meet them where they are
Speaker 4: the type of content that's going to appeal to someone
Speaker 4: a little bit older might not appeal to a younger person,
Speaker 4: so you'll probably see what I do. I try and
Speaker 4: replicate t because it's about meeting young people where they
Speaker 4: are and really about you know, getting onto their algorithm
Speaker 4: so that you know through all the memes and that
Speaker 4: they are.
Speaker 1: Seeing a little bit of policy.
Speaker 4: But I do think there's commentary around young people that
Speaker 4: they're disengaged, they're unorganized, they're lazy, but they're not a
Speaker 4: lot of young people are really, really, really passionate. Certainly,
Speaker 4: I hear from a lot of young people that are
Speaker 4: really passionate about politics, and they're really excited to see
Speaker 4: someone their own age in the Parliament.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, do you want some of
Speaker 2: these people to get into the parliament with you? Do
Speaker 2: you want to see more young people represented in federal Parliament?
Speaker 4: With the class of twenty twenty five, I'm the youngest,
Speaker 4: but we do have a lot of newer politicians that
Speaker 4: are in their early thirties. So that's certainly, you know,
Speaker 4: younger than what we've seen previously. So you can see
Speaker 4: when you look at our caucus and at the Parliament
Speaker 4: that progress is being made.
Speaker 1: But I just want to. I want to continue to
Speaker 1: see that.
Speaker 4: I'd love to see that meeting a you know, come
Speaker 4: down a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've already made history. That's very much clear. But
Speaker 2: what else do you want to be remembered for.
Speaker 4: I touched on this in my first speech a little
Speaker 4: bit last night, talking about domestic violence prevention. I think
Speaker 4: it's no secret that we've got a problem in Australia.
Speaker 4: We clearly need to change the attitudes. We need to
Speaker 4: be having conversations about, you know, what type of comments
Speaker 4: we're making towards women, what sort of attitudes we're seeing
Speaker 4: portrayed in the community, because I think we have a problem.
Speaker 4: You know, there's already been some big investments into you know,
Speaker 4: like crisis services, emergency accommodation, things like that. That's one
Speaker 4: part of it, but funding isn't going to fix the
Speaker 4: problem totally. The other thing that we need to do
Speaker 4: is be having conversations about, you know, what behavior is
Speaker 4: appropriate towards women and people generally, because you know, that
Speaker 4: sort of can be where it begins sometimes.
Speaker 2: Senator Charlotte Orcatt, thank you so much for joining the
Speaker 2: Daily Hours and congratulations on your first speege.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Wow, what a fascinating interview, Harry. Thanks so much for
Speaker 3: joining us on the Daily Ods today and thank you
Speaker 3: for listening. We'll be back again this evening with the headlines,
Speaker 3: and then again tomorrow with another deep dive. Until then,
Speaker 3: have a great day.
Speaker 4: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 4: Bunjelung Kalkutin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 4: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 4: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 4: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 4: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.