Sylvia Phyllis Hale (born 12 July 1942) is an Australian social justice, community and environmental campaigner, and a former politician. She was a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...

from 2003 to 2010 for

the Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties * Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina * Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *G ...

Personal life

Hale graduated from

The University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts and Diploma in Education; and graduated from the

University of NSW The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public university, public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight (Australian universities), ...

in 1998 with a

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the China, People's Republic ...

. In 1961, while at Sydney University, Hale was the President of the Sydney University Labor Club. In 1970, Hale was involved in the Socialist Review Group, a

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

group which was the precursor to the Socialist Workers Party. However, she left due to the "Group's opposition to " deep entry" into the Australian Labor Party". In 1965, she and her husband, Roger Barnes, established specialist book printers, Southwood Press. In 1977, she, Barnes and John Iremonger started the independent publishing company,

Hale and Iremonger Hale & Iremonger is an Australian independent publisher. It was founded in 1977 by Sylvia Hale, John Iremonger and Roger Barnes. John left the company in 1980, moving to Allen & Unwin. By 2002, when Sylvia became involved in NSW state politic ...

Political career

After the proposed construction of the third runway at Sydney Airport in 1994, she became a member of

No Aircraft Noise No Aircraft Noise, or more fully The Common Cause - No Aircraft Noise, was a minor Australian political party. It was dedicated to removing noise pollution for residents of Sydney, which is generated by the city's three airports. The party sugges ...

Party. She was later elected a councillor on

Marrickville Council Marrickville Council was a local government area located in the inner west region of Sydney, Australia. It was originally created on 1 November 1861 as the "Municipality of Marrickville". On 12 May 2016, Marrickville Council was forcibly merged ...

in 1995 for No Aircraft Noise. She joined the Greens in 2000 and continued to serve on Marickville Council until 2004. She was elected to the upper house of the New South Wales parliament in 2003. In 2010, Hale announced that she would be retiring from the

Upper House An upper house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smalle ...

at the next year's state election to allow her preselected replacement,

David Shoebridge David Martin Shoebridge (born 17 September 1971) is an Australian politician and former barrister. He is a member of the Australian Greens and was elected to the Senate as the party's lead candidate in New South Wales at the 2022 federal elec ...

, to contest the upcoming election as a sitting MP. She subsequently sought preselection for the state seat of

Marrickville Marrickville is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marrickville is located south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the largest suburb in the Inner West Council local gove ...

. She however failed to win her party's endorsement, losing 15–14 to local councillor Fiona Byrne. She eventually resigned her seat in September 2010.

After politics

After leaving politics, Hale became a spokeswoman for Welcome to Palestine, and was briefly detained by Israeli authorities at Tel Aviv airport. In 2019, she was elected Co-Convenor of The Greens NSW along with Rochelle Flood, and in 2020 elected as Convenor.

References

External links

Sylvia Hale MLC
Australian Greens members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 1942 births Living people University of New South Wales alumni 21st-century Australian politicians Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 21st-century Australian women politicians {{AustralianGreens-politician-stub