Stephanie Hodgins-May
Born
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
Occupation(s)Political activist
Lawyer
EmployerGreenpeace Australia Pacific
Known for
  • activist
  • political candidate
Political partyGreens

Steph Hodgins-May is an Australian politician and environmental lawyer who has been a candidate for the Australian Greens in multiple federal elections. Hodgins-May is currently the Head of Pacific for Greenpeace, and was formerly an advisor to the United Nations.

Early life and career

Hodgins-May was raised in Blampied in rural Victoria on a farm.[1] Her father was a mayor of the local shire.[2] Her mother was a media studies and drama teacher in Ballarat.[3]

She has a Bachelor of Law, Bachelor of Arts, and Master in International Relations from Deakin University.[1]

Hodgins-May founded the Vivien Hodgins Foundation in honour of her mother's commitment to education, and raised over $40,000 to assist disaster relief efforts for Samoa. She worked in particular on micro-finance projects for local women-led businesses.

She worked in property law before working in the Australian mission to the United Nations.[4] She was also her father's business partner in their family's farm.[2]

Following the 2019 election, Hodgins-May took up a position as Greenpeace's Head of Pacific. In this position she pushed for Australia to do more to prevent climate change and to help the Pacific Islands with the challenges that climate change causes.[5][6]

Political candidate

2013 election

Hodgins-May first ran for elected office at the 2013 election for the division of Ballarat, a safe Labor seat. She won 9.5% of the vote.[7]

2016 election

At the 2016 election, Hodgins-May contested the inner Melbourne seat of Melbourne Ports, a seat held by Labor since 1906. In a three cornered contest between the Greens, Labor and Liberal, Hodgins-May secured 23.79% of the primary vote.[8] The results of the election remained uncertain, with Hodgins-May closing in on the incumbent, Michael Danby with a strong preference flow.[9][10] However, Danby received strong support in the postal votes, and was ahead by fewer than 1000 votes on the seventh count of preferences. Hodgins-May was eliminated at that point, and her preferences allowed Danby to prevail in the final count over the Liberal candidate, Owen Guest.[8]

Zionism Victoria forum

During the 2016 election campaign, Hodgins-May was invited with the other two major party candidates, Michael Danby and Owen Guest, to participate in a candidates' forum for the Jewish community, which makes up a significant part of the division of Melbourne Ports. The event was co-sponsored by Zionism Victoria (ZV) and The Australian Jewish News (AJN).

After initially accepting the invitation, Hodgins-May declined to turn up citing the fact that ZV was a co-sponsor of the event. The cited reason was stated as the political stances taken by ZV against the United Nations.[11][12]

The decision at the time was seen as a slight against the Jewish community and as taking sides in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, although Hodgins-May subsequently accepted a number of invitations to speak at a number of other Jewish and Zionist organisations. The policy position of the Greens with regards to the conflict was almost indistinguishable from the Labor party, whose candidate, Danby was the eventual winner.[13] However some members of the Jewish community saw this move as a 'slap in the face' to the whole community.

Hodgins-May subsequently apologised to the community saying "I will say that I've certainly never been accused of being a bigot or anti-Semitic or anti-Zionist and I understand that that is how a lot of people felt and were quite hurt and for that, I do sincerely apologise. I really do. I did not mean to cause that hurt and offense to your community."[14]

The incident continued to be mentioned by Jewish publications in subsequent elections, especially the AJN, who were co-sponsors of the event in question, mentioning the incident often during subsequent election campaigns in 2019[15][16] and 2022.[17]

2019 election

Hodgins-May was the Greens Party candidate for the division of Macnamara, the renamed former Division of Melbourne Ports, for the 2019 Election.

While campaigning for the election, Hodgins-May secured the endorsement of Gillian Triggs, who was the Australian human rights commissioner until 2017. The endorsement was a personal one and not an endorsement of the party as a whole.[16] Triggs came under fire from both the Liberal and Labor parties for giving the endorsement.[18]

During the campaign, Hodgins-May was attacked by Jewish groups because one of her staff tweeted something critical of Israel during fighting in the Gaza Strip. Hodgins-May was critical of the staffer, but refused to remove him from the campaign.[16]

While Hodgins-May increased her vote marginally, the new Labor candidate, Josh Burns increased his primary vote significantly, while the Liberal Party vote fell, meaning Burns won the seat comfortably.[19]

2022 election

Hodgins-May was again preselected for the Greens in the Melbourne seat of Macnamara for the 2022 election.[17] It was one of the key seats that the Greens were targeting in their hopes of increasing their representation in parliament.[20]

Hodgins-May increased her primary vote and finished second in primary votes behind Labor, but was unsuccessful.[21]

2023 Senate pre-selection

In 2023 Hodgins-May was pre-selected by The Greens to replace Janet Rice upon Rice's retirement in the first half of 2024.[22]

Political positions

Hodgins-May has taken a strong stance on climate policy, and has called on successive governments to do more. She has argued that government inaction has caused Australia to become a global pariah when it came to issues around the environment.[23]

She is also an advocate for Australia increasing its foreign aid budget and to focus more on international development.[4]

Personal life

Hodgins-May lives in Elwood with her partner Ogy and has a son, Otis.[24]

Hodgins-May's mother died in the 2009 Samoan tsunami while holidaying at a local resort.[25]

Her father was killed in a traffic accident in 2017. Her father, Rod May, was on a motorbike, while the driver of the car had methamphetamines in his system and was disqualified from driving at the time.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 "Meet our campaigners". Greenpeace Australia Pacific. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "Daughters break down as they remember former mayor killed by dangerous driver". ABC News. 2 July 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  3. ↑ "Ballarat school mourns teacher taken by tsunami". The Sydney Morning Herald. 30 September 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  4. 1 2 Willingham, Richard (25 September 2015). "Labor confident of holding Melbourne Ports, despite Liberal and Greens challenge". The Age. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  5. ↑ "Biden Summit: Charities and churches call on PM to halve emissions by 2030 | Media Oxfam Australia". media.oxfam.org.au. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  6. ↑ McCulloch, Daniel (24 July 2020). "States to handle environmental approvals". Bega District News. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  7. ↑ Green, Antony. "Ballarat - Federal Election 2013". ABC News. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  8. 1 2 "First preference count for the division of Melbourne Ports (VIC)". Australian Electoral Commission. 28 July 2016. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  9. ↑ Chang, Charis (11 July 2016). "Do Greens still have a chance?". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  10. ↑ "Greens face prospect that election result will not lead to gains". the Guardian. 3 July 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  11. ↑ "Melbourne Ports Greens candidate pulls out of debate". Crikey. 9 June 2016. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  12. ↑ Levi, Joshua. "Greens candidate 'hurts, insults' community". www.australianjewishnews.com. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  13. ↑ "Greens candidate talks about her decision not to attend Zionism Victoria co-hosted debate". J-Wire. 28 June 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  14. ↑ "Hodgins-May glosses over facts at AUJS debate". www.australianjewishnews.com. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  15. ↑ "VIDEO: Candidates for Vic seat of Macnamara in the great debate". +61J. 8 April 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  16. 1 2 3 "Subscribe for award winning journalism". Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  17. 1 2 Douglas, Carly. "Steph Hodgins-May back in the ring". www.australianjewishnews.com. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  18. ↑ Brown, Greg (22 February 2019). "Plibersek slams Triggs' backing for Green". The Australian. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  19. ↑ Green, Antony. "Macnamara (Key Seat) - Federal Election 2019". abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  20. ↑ Smethurst, Annika (21 October 2021). "Greens eyeing off five Melbourne seats in hopes of hung parliament". The Age. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  21. ↑ Green, Antony. "Macnamara (Key Seat) - Federal Election 2022". abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  22. ↑ Carmody, Broede (30 November 2023). "'Enormous shoes to fill': Ex-Greenpeace boss to replace retiring Greens senator". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  23. ↑ Hodgins-May, Steph (28 March 2021). "Yes, achievements are important. So what has Morrison achieved on climate?". The Canberra Times. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  24. ↑ "Steph Hodgins-May, Greens Candidate for Macnamara". Steph Hodgins-May, Greens Candidate for Macnamara. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  25. ↑ Jackson, Andra; Andrew, Darby (30 September 2009). "Surprise beachside holiday turns into tragedy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
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