Dee Margetts

Diane Elizabeth "Dee" Margetts (born 5 March 1955) is a former Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Senate from 1993 to 1999 and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 2001 to 2005, representing the Greens (WA).

Dee Margetts
Senator for Western Australia
In office 1 July 1993 – 30 June 1999
Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council
In office 22 May 2001 – 21 May 2005
Constituency	Agricultural Region
Personal details
Born	(1955-03-05) 5 March 1955 (age 70) Fremantle, Western Australia
Political party	Greens WA
Alma mater	University of East Anglia University of Western Australia

Early life

Margetts was born on 5 March 1955 in Fremantle, Western Australia. She is the daughter of June Elaine and Ernest Joseph Margetts.^[1][2]

Margetts attended John Curtin Senior High School, graduating in 1972. She went on to the University of Western Australia, beginning an arts degree and majoring in anthropology and English. While at university she worked part-time as a sales agent with Qantas. In 1979, Margetts moved to England and enrolled in development studies at the University of East Anglia. She graduated Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in 1982, with her honours thesis exploring "the hypothesis that multinational companies invested in developing countries for their own profit".^[1]

Margetts then returned to Australia to complete a Diploma in Education at the University of Western Australia and was a teacher and librarian at high schools until 1988,^[1] when she became Coordinator for People for Nuclear Disarmament, a position which she held until 1991.^[3]

Political career

Margetts began her political involvement with the Alternative Coalition, a precursor to the Greens, standing as a candidate in the seat of Fremantle at the 1989 Western Australian state election. She then contested the federal seat of Swan as a Greens candidate in the 1990 Australian federal election. In 1991, she ran for mayor of Perth in local government elections, receiving 9.5% of the vote.

At the 1993 Australian federal election, Margetts was elected to the Australian Senate as a representative for Western Australia, serving as the Australian Greens Whip from 25 May 1996 until the end of her term. She lost her seat at the 1998 Australian federal election and concluded her term on 30 June 1999.

In the 2001 Western Australian state election, Margetts was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Council as a Greens WA member representing the Agricultural Region. She served one term before losing her seat at the 2005 Western Australian state election.

After politics

After politics, Margetts commenced a PhD at the University of Western Australia in early 2006 due to her concerns about a major Federal policy change on competition policy which had been pushed through the Federal Parliament in 1994. This was completed and approved in 2013, "A Critique of Australia's National Competition Policy: Assessing its outcomes in a range of major sectors". Her thesis looks at the impacts of the National Competition Policy, and she has written extensively on the area.^{[citation needed]}

In 2012 Margetts was interviewed by Mary Anne Jebb for the Old Parliament House oral history project.^[4]

Advocacy and activism

Before entering parliamentary politics, Margetts was actively involved in peace and environmental movements. From 1988 to 1991, she served as the Coordinator of People for Nuclear Disarmament in Western Australia, advocating for nuclear disarmament, opposing uranium mining, and campaigning against the storage and transportation of nuclear waste.^[5]

She has long been an advocate for environmental sustainability, Indigenous rights, and economic justice. Margetts participated in campaigns to protect Western Australia's old-growth forests and voiced opposition to state development projects that she believed conflicted with ecological values.