Charlotte Walker Becomes Australia’s Youngest Senator at 21 After Surprise Election Win

Australia has elected its youngest-ever senator — 21-year-old Charlotte Walker — in a stunning and unexpected victory during the May federal election.

Walker, who celebrated her 21st birthday on election day, secured the center-left Labor Party’s third Senate seat for South Australia, a position rarely won due to the complexities of the nation’s ranked-choice voting system. Despite receiving the lowest first-preference vote count among the six elected senators in the state, she was officially declared a winner on Tuesday by the Australian Electoral Commission.

Her six-year term will begin on July 1, with a base salary exceeding 205,000 Australian dollars (approximately $133,000 USD).

“It’s a big adjustment,” Walker said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “There’s a lot of pressure, but I really want to do a good job for South Australians — and show young people, especially young women, that this is something they can do too.”

A former union official, Walker follows in the footsteps of Jordon Steele-John of the Greens, who was elected to the Senate at age 23 in 2017. Australia’s youngest-ever federal lawmaker remains Wyatt Roy, who entered the House of Representatives at 20 in 2010.

Walker’s election reflects a broader trend: major vote swings, like those seen on May 3, often propel more women into Parliament — especially in seats previously considered unwinnable. While these wins can be reversed in subsequent elections, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government is on track to have 57% female representation in Parliament — up from 52% during his first term.

Labor’s success, according to political historian Frank Bongiorno, is not only due to the swing but also decades of internal reforms. Since implementing a 35% female candidate quota in 1994, the party has steadily increased its representation of women.

“The odds were stacked against her,” Bongiorno said of Walker’s win, “but this result is also the product of deliberate cultural changes within the Labor Party.”