Lyn Allison - Australian Senate

Australian Senate

An outspoken campaigner on women's issues, Allison won pre-selection on the Democrats ticket, and was elected to the Australian Senate in 1996 and re-elected for a second term in 2001.

Between 1998 and 2006, Lyn Allison served on the Legislation and References Committees for Environment, Recreation (later Information Technology), Communications and the Arts; and for Community Affairs. She served as Senate Select for Superannuation (1996–98); the Victorian Casino Inquiry (1996); the Lucas Heights Reactor (2000); Medicare (2003–04); and Mental Health (2005). In 2002 she was a member of the Parliamentary Delegation to New Zealand.

She was Deputy Leader of the Australian Democrats 2002-04. On 3 November 2004, following the resignation of Andrew Bartlett after the October 2004 election, she was elected unopposed as Leader. She took over the leadership at a time when the Democrats were at their lowest ever public opinion rating since the party was founded in 1977.

On 5 December 2006, Allison introduced into the Senate a bill titled the Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Bill 2006, which if enacted would prevent Australia from using, possessing and manufacturing cluster munitions. Two months earlier, she had travelled to Lebanon to survey the damage caused by cluster munition use in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War. Senator Allison, a leading feminist in the Australian parliament, was also among a cross-party group of female parliamentarians who introduced legislation into parliament in 2006 which effectively legalised the supply of the abortion pill RU486.

Senator Allison chaired an inquiry into the health effects of mobile phone towers from 1999 to 2001. She also established a reputation as a strong advocate of federal government funding for public schools and as an advocate for nuclear disarmament.