Who is Sarah Witty, the Labor candidate who could leave the Greens leaderless?
She is coming close to unseating Adam Bandt and leaving the Greens leaderless. So who is Labor’s Sarah Witty?
Federal Election
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Adam Bandt is in serious danger of being swept up in Labor’s landslide federal election win, with his seat of Melbourne still too close to call.
The Greens leader was the first candidate from his party to be elected to the lower house and has held the electorate since 2010.
Despite saying he was confident of retaining his seat, Mr Bandt fell behind his Labor challenger in the vote count on Tuesday.
So who is Sarah Witty, the Labor candidate who could leave the Greens leaderless?
Ms Witty is a foster carer, housing advocate and the chief executive of the Nappy Collective – a charity that supplies nappies to families in crisis.
According to the Labor candidate, she has “raised over $110m for social and affordable housing” through her work at Homes for Homes.
Property owners who register their properties with Homes for Homes and sell them donate 0.1 per cent of the sale price to the social enterprise, which is in turn passed onto community housing providers.
Her past places her well in line with the Albanese government’s $32bn Homes for Australia plan to build 1.2 million new homes by 2030.
A lifelong Melburnian, Ms Witty has spent the past 20 years living in the inner-city suburb of Richmond and ran for the Yarra City Council last year.
She lost her bid for local politics to an independent.
But she said she ran for federal politics because she had “seen lots of disadvantage through my time in many different roles, and I really want to make sure that every person gets the best chance for the best life that they deserve”.
“I decided to have a go at politics because I saw some disadvantage in the world and decided that we can do more, and I wanted to do more to help,” Ms Witty said in a social media video ahead of the campaign.
“So I put my hand up for this election.”
YouGov – the only research firm to correctly call the election – predicted a 4 per cent swing to Labor in Melbourne but tipped the Greens would hold onto the seat.
At reporting, the swing was 10.9 per cent to Labor.
Ms Witty would not be the only female Labor candidate to knock out a party leader or deal a major blow to the Greens.
In Queensland, Ali France unseated Peter Dutton in the battle for Dickson, ousting him as opposition leader.
Labor candidates Madonna Jarrett and Renee Coffey also won the seats of Brisbane and Griffith from the Greens after booting out Greens first-termers Stephen Bates and Max Chandler-Mather.
Originally published as Who is Sarah Witty, the Labor candidate who could leave the Greens leaderless?
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