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Elizabeth Mary "Giz" Watson (born 18 January 1957) is an English-born Australian politician and a former leader of The Greens, Western Australia. She served as a member of the
Western Australian Legislative Council The Western Australian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia, a state of Australia. It is regarded as a house of review for legislation passed by the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, Legislative A ...
for the North Metropolitan Region from 22 May 1997 until her retirement on 21 May 2013.


Biography

Watson was born in 1957 in Eastleigh, a town in
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, and emigrated to
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
in September 1967, travelling extensively through the state. She studied environmental science at
Murdoch University Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its ...
and, after leaving university to do voluntary work for a couple of years, graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1980. Watson was involved in protests in Western Australia against the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
in the early 1970s. She also became involved in 1979 in the first forest blockades at Wagerup against clear felling of jarrah forests for
bauxite mining Bauxite () is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH) ...
. She returned to the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
in the 1980s, where she was involved with training women to participate in the
peace camp Peace camps are a form of physical protest camp that is focused on anti-war and anti-nuclear activity. They are set up outside military military base, bases by members of the peace movement who oppose either the existence of the military bases the ...
outside the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
base
RAF Greenham Common Royal Air Force Greenham Common or more simply RAF Greenham Common is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, station in the civil parishes of Greenham and Thatcham in the England, English county of Berkshire. The airfi ...
, which protested against the deployment of
nuclear Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space *Nuclear ...
cruise missile A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled guided missile that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large payload over long distances with high precision. Modern cru ...
s at the base. In 1985 she participated in the first encirclement by women protestors of Greenham Common. In 1984 Watson attained a trade certificate in
carpentry Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. C ...
from the
City and Guilds of London Institute The City and Guilds of London Institute is an educational organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded on 11 November 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies to develop a national system of technical education, the institute has be ...
in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. It was soon after this that she joined an anarchist building collective in London, with everyone from architects to labourers getting the same pay, making decisions equally and subsidising worthy projects. In 1985 she returned to Australia and ran a building and construction business in Western Australia. In 1992, Watson became one of only three women to be registered as builders in Western Australia. During this time Watson also worked as the coordinator for the Marine & Coastal Community Network in Western Australia.


Political career

Watson joined the Greens WA party in 1990, and in the federal election that year, stood for the
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
seat of
Forrest Forrest may refer to: Places Australia *Forrest, Australian Capital Territory *Forrest, Victoria, a small rural township *Division of Forrest, a federal division of the Australian House of Representatives, in Western Australia *Electoral distric ...
. Shortly afterwards, she became the co-convener of the Greens WA party. Watson was narrowly elected to the state's
Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...
at the 1996 election, as a member for the North Metropolitan Region. She was re-elected in 2001, 2005 and 2008. At the 2013 Western Australian state election, Watson decided to move Legislative Council regions, switching from running for re-election in her seat in the Northern Metropolitan region, to candidacy in the South West region. However, Watson was unsuccessful as she was not elected in this region. During her political career she had portfolio responsibilities for an enormous range of matters, including not only biodiversity, environment and
climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
but also health, justice and prisons, human rights, mandatory sentencing, and the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the criminal justice system. In addition, throughout her Parliamentary career Watson maintained a steadfast commitment to the principles of open and accountable government. Her parliamentary career has been characterised by – in her words – "working in the spirit of consensus but also standing firm on matters of principle". Watson was the first openly lesbian parliamentarian in Australia and she played a significant role in lesbian and gay law reform in Western Australia. Her parliamentary career also included an active role in the achievement of abortion law reform in Western Australia. Watson's activism in the causes of gay and lesbian rights, social justice, indigenous rights, and peace and environmentalism, together with her parliamentary service made a major contribution to civil and human rights in Western Australia. Her service and contributions were recognised in 2011 when she was inducted into the Western Australian Women's Hall of Fame. Watson campaigned in parliament on a number of issues, including the banning of
uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...
mining and
radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...
disposal in Western Australia. She also campaigned against
female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM) (also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision) is the cutting or removal of some or all of the vulva for non-medical reasons. Prevalence of female ge ...
since at least 1998, and in 2004 successfully lobbied Jim McGinty, the WA Attorney-General, to introduce laws making the practice a crime. She introduced legislation to manage cats and another to protect WA's biodiversity. Watson and Labor MP Sally Talbot have spoken out against
uranium mining Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...
, nuclear power, and radioactive waste disposal in WA. Watson was a WA
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
candidate for the Greens in the 2019 federal election but was unsuccessful. She is the Green candidate for the
Division of O'Connor The Division of O'Connor is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the States and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is one of Western Australia's three rural seats, and o ...
in the 2025 Australian federal election.


Personal life

Watson, a graduate of
Murdoch University Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its ...
from the 1980s, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the university in 2015. Since 1990, Watson has lived with her same-sex partner, June Lowe, a social researcher.


References


External links


Greens WA Profile

Parliament of WA Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Giz 1957 births Living people Australian lesbian politicians Australian Greens members of the Parliament of Western Australia LGBTQ legislators in Australia People from Eastleigh Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council English emigrants to Australia 21st-century Australian women politicians 21st-century Australian politicians Women members of the Western Australian Legislative Council