19 Facts About Giz Watson

Elizabeth Mary "Giz" Watson was born on 18 January 1957 and is an English-born Australian politician and a former leader of The Greens, Western Australia.

Giz Watson served as a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council for the North Metropolitan Region from 22 May 1997 until her retirement on 21 May 2013.

Giz Watson studied environmental science at Murdoch University and, after leaving university to do voluntary work for a couple of years, graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1980.

Giz Watson was involved in protests in Western Australia against the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.

Giz Watson became involved in 1979 in the first forest blockades at Wagerup against clear felling of jarrah forests for bauxite mining.

Giz Watson returned to the United Kingdom in the 1980s, where she was involved with training women to participate in the peace camp outside the Royal Air Force base RAF Greenham Common, which protested against the deployment of nuclear cruise missiles at the base.

In 1984 Giz Watson attained a trade certificate in carpentry from the City and Guilds of London Institute in London.

In 1992, Giz Watson became one of only three women to be registered as builders in Western Australia.

Giz Watson joined the Greens WA party in 1990, and in the federal election that year, stood for the House of Representatives seat of Forrest.

Giz Watson was narrowly elected to the state's Legislative Council at the 1996 election, as a member for the North Metropolitan Region.

At the 2013 Western Australian state election, Giz Watson decided to move Legislative Council regions, switching from running for re-election in her seat in the Northern Metropolitan region, to candidacy in the South West region.

However, Giz Watson was unsuccessful as she was not elected in this region.

Giz Watson was the first openly lesbian parliamentarian in Australia and she played a significant role in lesbian and gay law reform in Western Australia.

Giz Watson campaigned in parliament on a number of issues, including the banning of uranium mining and radioactive waste disposal in Western Australia.

Giz Watson campaigned against female genital mutilation since at least 1998, and in 2004 successfully lobbied Jim McGinty, the WA Attorney-General, to introduce laws making the practice a crime.

Giz Watson introduced legislation to manage cats and another to protect WA's biodiversity.

Giz Watson was a WA Senate candidate for the Greens in the 2019 federal election but was unsuccessful.

Giz Watson is the Green candidate for the Division of O'Connor in the 2025 Australian federal election.

Since 1990, Giz Watson has lived with her same-sex partner, June Lowe, a social researcher.