2026-10-29
By Jordon Steele-John
Senator for Western Australia
It has been my absolute honour to be your Greens Senator for Western Australia this past year.
I want to take a moment at the top here to thank our outgoing Tasmanian Senator, Peter Whish-Wilson, for his unique, wonderful flavour of courage and compassion. You brought so much heart to the Senate, Pete. Those of us who remain will do our best to keep a bit of Peter in our own hearts as we go forward.
Luckily, Pete has left his seat in the incredibly capable hands of Vanessa Bleyer. If it wasn’t obvious from her stellar career as an environmental lawyer, Vanessa has already shown an amazing aptitude for parliamentary work. We are all very lucky to have her.
In this last year I have found so much reassurance and hope in our Greens movement. I’m so grateful for every single one of us sitting around our campfire and keeping alive the flame that drives back the fear. The idea that people shouldn’t have to be afraid of hunger, sickness, violence, or injustice.
We deliver a politics based on community, care, and respect. A future worth believing in, where we value human happiness and dignity. One that we can achieve together without asking for permission from the wealthy and powerful. It might seem like that goal is a long way off, but that kind of change happens very slowly, then all at once. And it only happens because of a whole lot of work by folks like us.
To everyone, from the volunteers on the booths to my colleagues in parliament and everyone in between, thank you for everything you have done over this last year. Nobody forced you to fight for what is right, but you did it anyway. It’s a truly noble and courageous choice to make, take a moment to be proud of what we have achieved together.
THE FIGHT FOR THE NDIS
Sometimes you get to pick your battles. Sometimes they pick you.
Labor’s attack on the NDIS did not start on the 22nd of April at the National Press Club. Before any announcements were made, there were years of focus-group tested attacks on the social licence of the scheme. The government needed an easy way to cut the budget which wouldn't upset any of their donors. And they found it in a program which had given many people a life-changing feeling of independence and agency that they may have never felt before.
Labor wanted these cuts to happen quickly and quietly. They spun a dramatic media narrative about fraud and waste while writing legislation focused almost exclusively on bringing down the bottom line of the scheme, regardless of the amount of suffering that would cause to disabled people, their families, and the disability support industry.
What they got instead was an overwhelming campaign of community resistance. Supported by the Greens in parliament, thousands of advocates held rallies, gave evidence to the Senate inquiry, and made sure that every politician in Canberra knew exactly why the bill should not pass.
Despite the overwhelming, unanimous outcry from the community, Labor, The Coalition, and One Nation voted to do harm to Australia’s disability community instead of making greedy gas corporations pay for the resources that they extract and export. Faced with a choice between withdrawing funding for AUKUS submarines or removing life-changing supports for disabled people, they chose cruelty.
Now we watch as the real impacts of the NDIS cuts unfold. As people lose their independence and social connections, as support workers lose their jobs, and as families who are already at burnout are forced to take up even more responsibility for care. My team and I will continue to provide support and advice for constituents who are affected by these cuts as best we can.
Despite that bleak context, I’m proud that the Greens were able to secure vital safeguard amendments to the bill before it passed. Because of our work and the fierce advocacy of the disability community, we were able to:
Limit ministerial powers to impose sweeping cuts to people’s supports budgets
Provide an appeals pathway for participants who are harmed by these cuts
Ensure greater transparency on automated decision-making
Provide greater protections for disabled people by ensuring that they cannot be forced to undergo harmful restrictive practices to gain access to the NDIS, and that any treatments required must be available in the public healthcare system
Protect whistleblowers who report fraud
And importantly, we have shown the major parties that the disability community is not the easy target that they thought we were. Disabled people will not give up fighting for their rights, and neither will the Greens.
PARLIAMENTARY WORK
Throughout the year we were able to have a positive impact on legislation throughout my portfolio areas.
We helped pass the bill to establish a permanent Centre for Disease Control in Australia, successfully amending the bill so that the CDC’s Advisory Committee must include a disabled person with health expertise. And because of our work, the CDC's annual report must explicitly assess the health impacts of climate change on Australians.
After a years-long campaign of pressure on the government, we finally have a ban on genetic discrimination in life insurance. Now, insurance companies cannot use the results from a genetic test to deny cover or raise premiums. People will no longer be discouraged from undertaking these tests as part of preventative medicine or clinical research programs.
This year I have taken part in parliamentary committees and inquiries on issues including
- Illicit tobacco
- Epilepsy
- Regional access to Medicare
- Intergenerational Housing Inequity
I was also the co-chair of Parliamentary Friends Groups for Mental Health, Arthritis, and ME/CFS.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
We thought that 2026 would be an election-free year for WA. But a resignation from the state lower house forced a by-election in Perth’s southern suburbs.
I want to once again thank and congratulate Rhi Davies and the newly formed Brand-Canning team for their amazing work on the by-election campaign. We could not have asked for a more dedicated and enthusiastic group of volunteers to spread our message of hope and justice around the doors, train stations, and polling booths of the electorate.
Importantly, there were so many new volunteers taking action for the first time in this campaign and a significant number of new members joining the group. We sometimes forget that it can take a lot of courage to make that first move into political action. I’m glad that our WA Greens community is so welcoming and nurturing to folks who have decided to take that chance. Hopefully these new faces become regular sights at future events.
I’m so pleased that I was able to organise some regional travel throughout W.A. electorate over the last year.
In November 2025 I travelled to Karratha and the Burrup Peninsula with Larissa Waters, Steph Hodgins-May, Brad Pettitt and Sophie McNeill to meet with local elders and see the damage being caused by Woodside’s Burrup Hub gas facility to the ancient rock art and sacred places of Murujuga.
Earlier this year I made two trips to Western Australia's verdant south, visiting Albany, Margaret River, and Bunbury. We spoke to locals about everything from housing, to disability justice, to the destruction caused by aluminium mining to the world’s only Jarrah forest.
I absolutely love exploring the amazing natural beauty of this big state and the unique, wonderful character of its people. I hope I get more opportunities to do so next year.
THANK YOU
I’m always aware that my colleagues and I only get to do this work because of the thousands and thousands of hours of work that is done by volunteers and members in every corner of the continent. In election campaigns and in the day-to-day administration of the party. Our movement is our people, I just get to hold the flag.
I want to thank every person reading this for every minute of effort that you put into the Greens this year. Your enthusiasm, integrity, and generosity is what makes our movement special and drives it forward.
As we move forward, I’m more determined than ever to stay true to our Greens values, regardless of what adversities we may face. We are strong because our motivations are virtuous and our movement is united. Powerful forces have been working for decades to shut us down, and we have held our ground. Let’s continue to show them how foolish it is to underestimate the Greens.
In Hope,
- Jordon