Lisa Singh: Indian-origin Labour Senator re-elected to the Australian Senate

• Lisa Singh has been re-elected as a Senator in Australia
• She won an amazing majority of 6.1% of the votes in her own right
• She's passionate about social and economic equality, law enforcement and climate change action

Lisa Singh, born in Tasmania to a Fijian-Indian father, a man who arrived as an international student in Australia back in 1963, is now an elected member of the Australian Parliament on July 27.

Before her stint in the Australian parliament, Lisa Singh was sworn in on November 2008 as a Minister for Corrections and Consumer Protection, Minister for Workplace Relations and Minister Assisting the Premier on Climate Change in the Tasmanian Parliament. During her tenure, she introduced many legal reforms but as luck would have it, she was defeated in the March 2010 state elections, mentioned theindiandiaspora.com report.

Journey of an Indian-origin Labour Senator

This win marks her re-entry into the Australian senate. In 2010, Lisa was elected to the Australian Senate; she then started her journey to build better political ties between India and Australia. During her tenure, she took part in various Indian festivals with the Indian diaspora who were settled in Australia and also visited India soon thereafter. In 2014, President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, honored Lisa by awarding her the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award for helping foster better Indo-Australian ties.

During her tenure, she took part in various Indian festivals with the Indian diaspora that were settled in Australia and also visited India soon thereafter. In 2014, President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, honoured Lisa by awarding her the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award for helping foster better Indo-Australian ties.

According to theindiandiaspora.com article, in 2015 preselection ballot, John Short overtook Lisa, which relegated her to the fourth position. John Short, an Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Secretary was a reasonable candidate and enjoyed support. This year Singh was demoted to the sixth position. It seemed as an unwinnable position on the Tasmanian Labor Party ticket.

The great-granddaughter of a laborer from Fiji who arrived from Calcutta, Lisa Singh is re-elected to Australian senate, following footsteps of her grandfather Ram Jati Singh who was a MP in the Fiji Parliament coming up against all odds of gender and race Lisa Singh won an amazing majority of 6.1% of the votes in her own right. At a point, it was unlikely for the Labor Party to win more than three Senate seats in Tasmania (a minimum required for Singh to remain in power). However, with 0.80 quota in her name, five seats for Labor Party is practically guaranteed.

The story of a mother of two sons coming back up from the bottom or sixth position in this context is awe-inspiring. Lisa Singh recently tweeted honouring the decision.

She's passionate about social and economic equality, law enforcement and climate change action. She hopes to keep fighting for these issues while she mentors people of varied backgrounds to buck up the courage to run for the parliament.

– prepared by Karishma Vanjani of NewsGram. Twitter: @BladesnBoots

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