\n<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s youngest senator has told parliament in her first speech she battled depression and bullying before her election, and has dealt with misogyny and Pauline Hanson since.<\/p>\n
Labor\u2019s Charlotte Walker, a South Australian who turned 21 on election night, delivered the speech on Monday night.<\/p>\n
She said when she was 18, she was trying to work out why she had trouble sleeping \u2013 but the truth was she was in denial about having depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effects had been long lasting, compounded by guilt,\u201d she said. \u201cI often wondered if I wanted to go on \u2013 if there was any point in me being here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/p>\n
Only a handful of people previously knew about her experience, she said, because she felt \u201cdeep shame\u201d and was worried about \u201cthe perception of being damaged goods\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring my term in parliament, I want to shine a light on how childhood experiences like mine can continue to affect your mental health into adulthood \u2013 and to explore meaningful ways to address this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Walker celebrates her 21st birthday on election night<\/span><\/p>\n And she said while people have accused her of being privileged because she went to a private school, her mum scraped together the money because she was being bullied so badly she was forced out of her local public school in year four.<\/p>\n She said she will focus on issues such as the housing crisis and generational inequity, domestic violence, healthcare, youth mental health, climate change, regional opportunities and workers\u2019 rights during her term.<\/p>\n Young people, she said, \u201clive with the ever-present threat of climate change\u201d, from both current events such as fires, floods, and SA\u2019s algal bloom, and from future scenarios.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2050 I won\u2019t be in my late 90s, like some who want to abandon net zero,\u201d she said. \u201cMy friends and I will be in our 40s, and we demand an inhabitable planet.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/span><\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Walker also talked about the scourge of domestic violence, and pointed to findings by the SA royal commission into domestic, family and sexual violence, including that gen Z is the first generation to grow up exposed to violent pornography and misogyny online.<\/p>\n She said while it was technically her first speech, it wasn\u2019t the first time she has spoken in the chamber \u2013 and the results from previous outings have been \u201cwhack\u201d.<\/p>\n That may have been a reference to her feud with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson who referred to her as just being \u201cout of her nappies\u201d, after Walker criticised Hanson\u2019s position against net zero. She has also copped misogynistic comments on social media, including on an Instagram reel that she was forced to remove anyway, because she\u2019d breached parliament\u2019s strict rules about where filming is allowed.<\/p>\n On a lighter note, Walker said that her mother had suggested she tell parliament how she got her cat, Gerald. The story was that Walker and a friend \u201cheroically\u201d rescued two abandoned kittens they found in a national park, each keeping one.<\/p>\n Only, that story wasn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n \u201cI just really wanted a cat,\u201d she said, adding that they got the kittens from a colleague.<\/p>\n Addressing her mother, she said: \u201cI only lied because I thought that if you knew the truth you\u2019d make me take him back.\u201d<\/p>\n In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australia\u2019s youngest senator has told parliament in her first speech she battled depression and bullying before her election, and has dealt with misogyny and Pauline Hanson since. Labor\u2019s Charlotte Walker, a South Australian who turned 21 on election night, delivered the speech on Monday night. She said when she was 18, she was trying to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[2059,2029,7486,10697,10701,10700,124,10699,960,1053,10698,2168,6126],"class_list":{"0":"post-17673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-australian","9":"tag-australias","10":"tag-depression","11":"tag-describes","12":"tag-lie","13":"tag-petrelated","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-responses","16":"tag-senator","17":"tag-speech","18":"tag-whack","19":"tag-white","20":"tag-youngest"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}