Rhiannon to quit NSW for Senate bid

[grace]

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has told her party she will stand down from the NSW upper house ahead of the next federal election in a bid for a Senate spot.

 

Ms Rhiannon won her seat in the legislative council at the 1999 state election and has led a number of campaigns, most recently calling for political donation reform.

 

Her current term in the NSW upper house doesn't expire until 2015.

 

"When our party opens up preselection (for the Senate) I will put forward my name, but that hasn't been finalised," Ms Rhiannon told AAP on Thursday.

 

"Irrespective of that, so that the party has certainty, I've said that I will resign when a federal election will be called.

 

Kerry Nettle became the first NSW Green to win a Senate spot at the 2001 election, but failed to win a second term at the 2007 poll with 8.6 per cent of the vote.

 

While she already has an established profile in NSW, Ms Rhiannon said winning a Senate spot would not be easy.

 

"Getting 14 per cent is obviously a challenge for a minor party," she said.

 

However, Ms Rhiannon would not give her reasons for wanting to move to federal politics until the party had gone through the preselection process.

 

Along with the need for political donations reform, Ms Rhiannon has also campaigned against politician's perks, including generous superannuation, and the V8 Supercar Race to be held at Olympic Park.

 

In 2002, she attempted to block the state government's sniffer dog laws and also proposed NSW trial "cannabis cafes" at three locations, only for it to be rejected by then-premier Bob Carr.

 

Two years later, Ms Rhiannon walked out of the upper house with two other Greens MPs while Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile was sworn back in to NSW parliament after losing his bid to represent NSW in the Senate.

 

Ahead of the 2007 NSW election, she was also forced to defend the Greens drugs policy to decriminalise all personal drug use in the state.

 

Ms Rhiannon said the way to deal with the ice epidemic was to go after drug dealers with tough penalties rather than locking up individual users.

 

Prior to entering parliament, Ms Rhiannon was a member of the NSW Women's Advisory Group to the NSW government and founded the National Coalition for Gun Control in 1988.

 

 

Author: Nick Ralston

Date: 5 February 2009

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Copyright: © 2009 AAP