Louise Pratt
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Senator Louise Pratt |
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| Senator for Western Australia | |
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Assumed office 2 July 2016 |
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In office 1 July 2008 – 30 June 2014 |
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| Member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia |
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In office 22 May 2001 – 29 October 2007 |
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| Succeeded by | Batong Pham |
| Constituency | East Metropolitan |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
18 April 1972 Kalgoorlie, WA, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian 
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| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Domestic partner | Aram Hosie (2005 - 2015) |
Louise Clare Pratt (born 18 April 1972) is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for Western Australia since 2016, and previously also from 2008 to 2014. She is a member of the Labor Party, and previously served as a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 2001 to 2007. She was the youngest woman ever elected to the Legislative Council at the time of her election, the second open lesbian to be elected to an Australian parliament, and was the first to have a transgender man as a partner.
Pratt was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Her father was born in Devon, England, and she was a British citizen by descent until renouncing it prior to the 2007 election. Pratt grew up in the outer hills suburbs of Perth, where she attended Eastern Hills Senior High School. She studied arts at the University of Western Australia, where she became involved in student politics. After taking on a number of positions at her campus, she was elected as the state education officer for the National Union of Students, as well as a member of its national executive, in 1994.
After university, Pratt became involved in gay rights activism, serving as a regular spokesperson for Gay and Lesbian Equality, a prominent advocacy group in the state. This saw her addressing issues such as discrimination, unequal age of consent laws, homophobia in schools and property rights, and frequently saw her clash with the conservative Liberal Party of Australia government of Richard Court. It also saw Pratt working in concert with fellow activist Brian Greig, who became a Senator for and at one point interim leader of the Australian Democrats.
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