Hatice "Hutch" Hussein is an Australian feminist, activist, and social worker. She served as the elected State President of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) between 2016 and 2019. Upon taking this role, she became the first President in the party's 125-year history to be from an ethnic minority background, from a Muslim background, and from the LGBT community. Hussein has also co-convened EMILY's List Australia to get progressive Labor women into Parliament and was a Founding Board Member for the Women's Rights Action Network - Australia (WRANA). Hussein has also worked for the Northern Migrant Resource Centre in Melbourne, and as a Ministerial Adviser in Education and Women's Affairs. In 2019, Hussein called on members of the Victorian Labor to support women who have launched complaints of bullying and sexual harassment within the party. At the

2022 Victorian state election The 2022 Victorian state election was held on Saturday, 26 November 2022 to elect the 60th Parliament of Victoria. All 88 seats in the Legislative Assembly (lower house) and all 40 seats in the Legislative Council (upper house) were up for el ...

Hussein ran unsuccessfully as the Labor candidate for the

Electoral district of Polwarth The electoral district of Polwarth is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It is located in south-west rural Victoria, west of Geelong, and covers the Colac and Corangamite local government areas (LGA), parts of the Mo ...

, a district represented by conservative parties for over a century.

Personal life

Hussein was born to

Turkish Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,0 ...

parents. Her father, Niazi, was a trained mechanic who fled to Australia from

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

in 1970 when the

Cyprus conflict The Cyprus problem, also known as the Cyprus dispute, Cyprus issue, Cyprus question or Cyprus conflict, is an ongoing dispute between Greek Cypriots in the south and Turkish Cypriots in the north. Initially, with the occupation of the island ...

escalated. Her mother, Nahide, worked at a television factory upon moving to Australia. Hussein worked in NGO organisations before becoming pre selected for the

. Hussein regards herself as a "cultural Muslim". She is a mother and identifies as a lesbian.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hussein, Hutch Living people Australian people of Turkish Cypriot descent Australian feminists Australian Muslims Australian lesbians Lesbian Muslims Year of birth missing (living people)