Caroline Le Couteur (born 1952) is an Australian politician. She was elected to the

Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory, known in short as the ACT Legislative Assembly, is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It sits in the Legislative Assembly Building, Canberra, Leg ...

representing the electorate of Molonglo for the

ACT Greens The ACT Greens is a green politics, green political party located in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and a member of the federation of the Australian Greens. Both parties were formed in 1992, three years after the ACT achieved self-gover ...

at the 2008 election and defeated at the 2012 election In October 2016, she was re-elected to the assembly representing the new electorate of Murrumbidgee, serving a single term until her retirement in 2020.

Life before election

Le Couteur grew up in the Canberra suburb of Yarralumla. Her father was the British physicist Kenneth Le Couteur. She was educated at Telopea Park High School and the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

where she studied economics. She moved to Nimbin after the holding of the

Aquarius Festival The Nimbin Aquarius Festival was a counter-cultural arts and music festival organised by the Australian Union of Students. It was the fourth in a biannual series of festivals, first organised by the National Union of Australian University Studen ...

there in 1973 and stayed there for 11 years. While in Nimbin she was instrumental in forming a pre-school and primary school and became a solar (photovoltaic) panel retailer and installer. She subsequently moved back to Canberra and worked for the federal and territorial governments firstly in information technology and later in renewable energy policy. She later became an Executive Director of locally based, now ASX listed, company Australian Ethical Investment as well as their information technology manager. Le Couteur was active in the local environment community. She was at the time of her election one of the two national councillors of the

Australian Conservation Foundation The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability. One high-profi ...

(ACF) and had previously been on the ACF's board. She was a keen supporter of groups such as the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society, Pedal Power, Oxfam, Anglicare and the Conservation Council. Le Couteur has dual British-Australian citizenship.

Political career

Le Couteur stood for the ACT Greens in the electorate of Molonglo in 1998 supporting the Green incumbent Kerrie Tucker. She remained active in the Greens and stood again in Molonglo in 2008. Before the 2008 election the Greens had one member,

Deb Foskey Deborah Jane Foskey (12 November 1949 – 1 May 2020) was an Australian politician with the ACT Greens. Early life Foskey was born at Terang in rural Western Victoria, the second of a family of four. Her father worked for the Victorian Depart ...

. Prior to the 2008 election polling conducted by Patterson Market Research and published in ''

The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...

'' suggested the Green vote had significantly increased since the last election at the expense of Labor, with the Liberal vote remaining relatively unchanged. Commentators predicted the Greens would hold the balance of power and decide who forms government. The Greens stated they were willing to court both major parties. At the close of counting on election night, with 82.1 per cent of the vote counted, Labor had obtained 37.6 per cent of the vote across the ACT, with the Liberals at 31.1 per cent and the Greens at 15.8 per cent. Swings were recorded against both the Labor (−9.3 per cent) and Liberal (−3.7 per cent) parties with a +6.6 per cent swing towards the Greens. This resulted in the election of

Amanda Bresnan Amanda Bresnan (born 4 December 1971) is an Australian politician and a former member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. Bresnan was elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Brindabella for ...

, Meredith Hunter,

Shane Rattenbury Shane Stephen Rattenbury (born 25 August 1971) is an Australian politician currently serving as as a member of the multi-member district unicameral Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly since 2008 and as the leader of the ACT Green ...

and Caroline Le Couteur. Le Couteur, Bresnan and Hunter were defeated at the 2012 election. Le Couteur stood as a candidate for the new

Murrumbidgee electorate The Murrumbidgee electorate is one of the five electorates for the unicameral 25-member Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. It elected five members at the 2016 ACT election. History Murrumbidgee was created in 2016, when the fiv ...

in the 2016 election, and was successfully re-elected. After being sworn in as a member of the Assembly, Le Couteur was appointed chair of the Parliamentary Planning Committee. During her time in the Assembly, Le Couteur was involved in the passage of legislation committing the ACT to a 'zero

emissions Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: ** Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...

by 2050' target and a ban on political donations by the

property industry Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. ...

. She announced her retirement from politics ahead of the 2020 election.

Personal life

Le Couteur has described herself as an "ageing

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

" and has admitted to smoking

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

in her youth, as well as having tried

acid An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...

References

External links

Caroline Le Couteur: Website

Caroline Le Couteur: Legislative Assembly Members' page

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Couteur, Caroline 1952 births Living people Australian Greens members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly Members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly People from Canberra 21st-century Australian politicians Australian people of Jersey descent Women members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian women politicians