Katrina Stratton (born 6 January 1973) was a member of the

Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House, Perth, Parliament House in the Western Australian capi ...

for the

electoral district of Nedlands Nedlands is a Western Australian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly Electoral districts of Western Australia, electorate in the state of Western Australia. Nedlands is named for the inner western Perth suburb of Nedlands, Western Austra ...

for the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

. She won her seat at the

2021 Western Australian state election The 2021 Western Australian state election was held on Saturday 13 March to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, where all 59 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly and all 36 seats in the We ...

. In July 2024, Stratton announced she would be leaving the Legislative Assembly and taking the

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 ...

seat to be vacated by Sally Talbot on 25 May 2025.

Education and career

Stratton has a number of degrees, having obtained a Bachelor of Social Work, a Doctor of Philosophy, and a Master in Business Administration from the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

. Prior to her election win in 2021 Stratton lectured at

Curtin University Curtin University (previously Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology) is an Australian public university, public research university based in Bentley, Western Australia, Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. ...

and was a board member at Tuart Place, a resource service for adults who were in out-of-home care during their childhood.

Election Results

2021 State Election

The Nedlands seat had been held by the Liberals or their predecessors since its creation in 1930, most notably by former premiers

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...

and

Richard Court Richard Fairfax Court (born 27 September 1947) is a former Australian politician and diplomat. He served as Premier of Western Australia from 1993 to 2001 and as Australian Ambassador to Japan from 2017 to 2020. A member of the Liberal Party ...

. As a measure of how strongly the seat tilted toward the Liberals, in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Labor was pushed into third place even as the Liberals suffered the second-largest defeat of a sitting government in the state's history at the time. The incumbent member, former minister and former deputy opposition leader

Bill Marmion William Richard Marmion (born 22 May 1954) is an Australian politician who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia between 2008 and 2021, representing the seat of Nedlands. He served as a minister in the government of Col ...

, sat on a margin of eight percent after a redistribution before the writs were issued. However, Stratton narrowly led Marmion on the first count after Marmion lost over 16 percent of his primary vote from 2017. Stratton ultimately won the seat with 52.8% of the

two-party preferred vote In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP), is the result of an opinion poll or a projection of an election result where preferences are distributed to one of the two major parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal/Nation ...

, a swing of 10.8%, after preferences were distributed. She defeated Marmion on the fifth count after over three-quarters of

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

preferences flowed to her. Her victory was part of a large swing toward Labor in west Perth, an area long considered Liberal heartland.

References

Living people 1973 births Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Women members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians Academic staff of Curtin University 21st-century Australian women politicians University of Western Australia alumni {{Australia-Labor-WesternAustralia-MP-stub