Larissa Joy Waters (born 8 February 1977) is an Australian politician and lawyer who is currently serving as the

leader Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

of the

Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a Left-wing politics, left-wing green party, green Australian List of political parties in Australia, political party. As of 2025, the Greens are the third largest politica ...

since May 2025. She has also served as a

Senator for Queensland This is a list of senators from the state of Queensland since the Federation of Australia The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, ...

from 2011 to 2017, and again since 2018. Waters was first elected as a

in 2010 and taking up her seat in 2011, she was forced to vacate the Senate in July 2017 in the parliamentary eligibility crisis, due to her holding Canadian citizenship in violation of

Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia, Australian Constitution lists the grounds for disqualification on who may become a candidate for election to the Parliament of Australia. It has generally arisen for consideration by the High Court of ...

. Having renounced her Canadian citizenship, Waters was re-appointed to the Senate in 2018 by the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

to fill the casual vacancy created by the resignation of Senator

Andrew Bartlett Andrew John Julian Bartlett (born 4 August 1964) is an Australian politician, social worker, academic, and social campaigner who served as a Senator for Queensland from 1997 to 2008 and from 2017 to 2018. He represented the Australian Democrats ...

. She served as Greens co-deputy leader from May 2015 to July 2017 and again from December 2018 to June 2022, and as her party's Senate leader from February 2020. In May 2025, Waters was elected leader of the Australian Greens, following loss of the seat of Melbourne by then leader

Adam Bandt Adam Paul Bandt (born 11 March 1972) is an Australian former politician and industrial lawyer who was the leader of the Australian Greens from 2020 to 2025. He previously served as the member of parliament (MP) for the Victoria (state), Victori ...

in the

2025 Australian federal election The 2025 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 3 May 2025, to elect members of the 48th Parliament of Australia. All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives were up for election, along with 40 ...

Early life and education

Larissa Waters was born on 8 February 1977in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

, Canada. Her Australian parents were in Canada working and studying, but the family left when Waters was an 11-month-old baby, and she grew up in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. Waters attended a primary school in

Rainworth Rainworth is a village in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England. It is split between the local government districts of Newark and Sherwood and Mansfield.OS Explorer Map 270: Sherwood Forest: (1:25 000): To th ...

and completed her secondary schooling at Kelvin Grove State High School. She has a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

and a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from

Griffith University Griffith University is a public university, public research university in South East Queensland on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of Australia. The university was founded in 1971, but was not officially opened until 1975. Griffith ...

and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the New South Wales College of Law. From 2000 to 2001, she was a legal researcher at the Queensland Land and Resources Tribunal (predecessor of the Land Court of Queensland), from 2001 to 2002 a lawyer at

Freehills Freehills was a commercial law firm operating in the Asia Pacific region. It was one of the Big Six Australian law firms. In 2012 it merged with Herbert Smith to become Herbert Smith Freehills. History The firm's predecessors include the prac ...

, and from 2002 to 2011 was a lawyer with the

Environmental Defenders Office Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) is an Australian NGO that encourages, funds, and provides lawyers and legal support for litigation, law reform, and community engagement on climate change and environmental issues. EDO formed in late 2019 w ...

Political career

Waters was the Greens' Brisbane Central Candidate in the

2006 Queensland state election 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics A six-sided polygon is a hexagon, one of the three regular polygons capable of tiling the plane. A hexagon a ...

, running against premier

Peter Beattie Peter Douglas Beattie (born 18 November 1952) is an Australian former politician who served as the 36th Premier of Queensland, in office from 1998 to 2007. He was the state leader of the Labor Party from 1996 to 2007. Beattie was born in Syd ...

, securing almost 5,000 votes. She was the lead Senate candidate for the Greens in Queensland at the 2007 federal election. The party received 7.3 percent of the statewide vote (an increase of 1.9 points), but this was not enough to secure her election. Waters again stood for office at the

2009 Queensland state election The 2009 Queensland state election was held on 21 March 2009 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament. The election saw the incumbent Australian Labor Party (Queensland Bra ...

, running for the seat of Mount Coot-tha. The seat was held by the sitting

Treasurer of Queensland Treasurer of Queensland is the title held by the Cabinet (government), Cabinet Minister (government), minister who is responsible for the Queensland Treasury, and by extension, all financial matters of the Government of Queensland, Queensland Go ...

, Andrew Fraser of the Labor Party. She polled 23.1 percent on

first preferences A first-preference is a voter's most-preferred candidate. In certain ranked systems such as first preference plurality, ranked-choice voting (RCV), and the single transferable vote, first preferences for a candidate are considered most important ...

, with

Ronan Lee Ronan Oliver Lee (born 4 January 1976) is an Irish Australian former politician and research fellow in the at . He was previously a visiting scholar at Queen Mary University of London's International State Crime Initiative. His research focuss ...

(25.9 percent in

Indooroopilly Indooroopilly ( , colloquially Indro ) is a riverside suburb south-west of the Brisbane CBD, Queensland, Australia. In the , Indooroopilly had a population of 13,622 people. Geography Indooroopilly is bounded to the south and south-east by ...

) the only Greens candidate with a higher percentage. Waters was again placed first on the Greens' senate ticket at the 2010 federal election. She was elected with 12.8 per cent of the vote, an increase of 5.4 percentage points. In May 2015, Waters was elected to the Greens' "leadership

triumvirate A triumvirate () or a triarchy is a political institution ruled or dominated by three individuals, known as triumvirs (). The arrangement can be formal or informal. Though the three leaders in a triumvirate are notionally equal, the actual distr ...

". She was made a "co-deputy leader" alongside Scott Ludlam, with

Richard Di Natale Richard Luigi Di Natale (; born 6 June 1970) is an Australian former politician who was a Senator for Victoria. He was also the leader of the Australian Greens from 2015 to 2020. Di Natale was elected to the Senate in the 2010 federal electio ...

replacing

Christine Milne Christine Anne Milne (; born 14 May 1953) is an Australian politician who served as a Senator for Tasmania. She was the leader of the parliamentary caucus of the Australian Greens from 2012 to 2015. Milne stepped down as leader on 6 May 2015, ...

as the party leader. Waters was re-elected to the senate at the 2016 double-dissolution election, winning a three-year term with 6.9 percent of the vote.

Resignation

Waters was forced to resign from the Senate on 18 July 2017, after it was uncovered that she was a dual Canadian-Australian citizen, thereby making her ineligible to be elected under

section 44 of the Australian Constitution Section 44 of the Australian Constitution lists the grounds for disqualification on who may become a candidate for election to the Parliament of Australia. It has generally arisen for consideration by the High Court sitting in its capacity as t ...

. Her resignation came four days after her fellow Greens co-deputy leader Scott Ludlam had resigned from the Senate over dual citizenship, which prompted several other MPs and Senators to clarify their citizenship status. Waters stated that she had previously believed she was solely an Australian citizen, and if she had wished to gain Canadian citizenship she would have needed to take active steps before age 21, but had recently discovered she had in fact held

dual citizenship Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one sovereign state, country under its nationality law, nationality and citizenship law as a national or cit ...

since birth. Her seat was filled by a recount, which saw former

Australian Democrats The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party splinter groups, it was Australia's lar ...

leader

, who held the second position after Waters on the Greens' 2016 Senate ticket in Queensland, return to the Senate. On 8 August 2017, Waters announced that she had renounced her Canadian citizenship and declared her intent to stand for Greens preselection and return to parliament at the next federal election. The High Court handed down its decision on 27 October 2017 and ruled that Waters was invalidly elected.

Return

On 3 April 2018, Waters was announced as the

Queensland Greens The Queensland Greens is a Green party in Queensland, Australia, and a state member of the Australian Greens. The party is currently represented in all three levels of government, by Larissa Waters and Penny Allman-Payne in the federal Senate ...

lead Senate candidate for the next federal election, with

instead opting to contest the lower house seat of

. On 16 June 2018, Bartlett announced that he would resign from the senate at the end of August, and Waters was preselected to fill the resulting casual vacancy ahead of the election. On 6 September 2018, the

Parliament of Queensland The Parliament of Queensland is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature, legislative body of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists o ...

re-appointed Waters to the Senate. The Greens party room returned Waters to the co-deputy leadership on 4 December 2018. Waters was re-elected as a Senator for Queensland at the 2019 federal election, where she received 9.9% of the state's vote, as well as a 3.12-point swing in her favour. In February 2020, Greens leader Richard Di Natale resigned and was succeeded by

. Unlike his predecessors as Greens leader, including Di Natale, Bandt was a member of 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 ...

and this resulted in Waters, as one of the co-deputy leaders, becoming the leader of the Greens in the Senate. This made her the second woman to lead the Greens in the Senate after Christine Milne. In March 2021, Waters issued an apology to federal minister

Peter Dutton Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian former politician who served as the Leader of the Opposition (Australia), Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party from 2 ...

for comments made on Twitter accusing him of being an "inhuman, sexist rape apologist". In her apology, Waters said that there was no basis for those allegations.

Leader of the Australian Greens

Waters became the leader of the Australian Greens following Adam Bandt's loss of the seat of Melbourne during the

. Waters was selected from 11 other senators, including

Mehreen Faruqi Mehreen Saeed Faruqi (born 8 July 1963) is a Pakistani-born Australian politician and former engineer who has been a federal Senator for New South Wales since 15 August 2018, representing the Greens. She was chosen to fill a casual vacancy c ...

and

Sarah Hanson-Young Sarah Coral Hanson-Young (née Hanson; born 23 December 1981) is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for South Australia since July 2008, representing the Australian Greens. She is the youngest woman to be elected to federal parlia ...

, who also ran for candidacy, and one lower-house MP. , Water is second-longest serving Green in parliament, after Sarah Hanson-Young.

Political concerns

Waters' political concerns include

environmental protection Environmental protection, or environment protection, refers to the taking of measures to protecting the natural environment, prevent pollution and maintain ecological balance. Action may be taken by individuals, advocacy groups and governments. ...

gender equity Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...

, ending

gender-based violence Gender-related violence or gender-based violence (GBV) refers to any kind of violence directed against people due to their gender or gender identification, culture may have a role to play, being lower in egalitarianism societies and higher, sexist ...

, and addressing the influence of and large donations by corporations.

Personal life

Waters has one child with journalist Brendan O'Malley, born in 2009. Waters and O'Malley separated in 2013. Waters has another child born in 2016, who made Australian political history by becoming the first baby to be

breastfed Breastfeeding, also known as nursing, is the process where breast milk is fed to a child. Infants may suck the milk directly from the breast, or milk may be extracted with a Breast pump, pump and then fed to the infant. The World Health Orga ...

in the Senate chamber in 2017.

References

External links

*
Australian Parliamentary biography

Summary of parliamentary voting for Senator Larissa Waters on TheyVoteForYou.org.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waters, Larissa 1977 births Living people Australian Greens members of the Parliament of Australia Leaders of the Australian Greens Australian LGBTQ rights activists Members of the Australian Senate for Queensland Women members of the Australian Senate 21st-century Australian lawyers Canadian emigrants to Australia Naturalised citizens of Australia Politicians from Queensland Politicians from Winnipeg Griffith University alumni Australian women lawyers 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians