Greens candidate for Cooper, Tara Burnett, could make history at this year’s federal election

Tara Burnett initially laughed at the notion of running for a seat in the upcoming federal election, but now she could make history if elected.

The 36-year-old trade unionist, public school teacher and renter grew up entrenched in politics thanks to her Labor family upbringing and was an ALP member during the Rudd government.

But she eventually left the party after feeling disillusioned.

“I spent a while in the political wilderness, including a couple of years working as a journalist and covering elections, both here and elsewhere, overseas, and looking into party systems,” she told 9news.com.au.

After returning from a stint abroad in 2012, she joined her local Greens branch in search of making a material change.

By early last year, she was approached by members of the party to run for the federal seat of Cooper, which sits in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

“After laughing at the first couple of them, I started to think about what I could bring to the table as a public school teacher, as a trade unionist, as a Cooper local, as an out queer woman, and decided to put my hand up,” she said.

“And it’s just been all go since then.”

Burnett is campaigning on issues like education and renters’ rights, being one herself in a Cooper unit without air-conditioning.

She never intended to make her trans identity a core part of her campaign for fear of being accused of identity politics and a desire to focus on policies.

But she found her candidacy — which, if successful, would make her the first-ever trans MP in any Australian parliament — had resonated within the queer community.

“The amount of feedback that I got, particularly from the kids and from parents telling me what it meant, just brought me to absolute tears,” she said.

“That’s who I’m doing it for.

“I don’t want to make history for self-patronage. I want to make history because of what it means to the broader community.”

Burnett said it was important for her to be a true representative in parliament who will fight for queer rights at a federal level.

“I do want to make life hard for people who want to take away the rights of queer people in this country, as they’re feeling very emboldened to do by the recent events in the US,” she said.

“If I’m elected, then I’ve got the ability to be that voice more than anyone has been able to before.

“And that’s powerful, and it’s also a big responsibility for me.”

Burnett is hoping to snatch the seat from current Labor MP Ged Kearney when voters head to the ballot boxes on Saturday.

The seat, which was renamed from Batman to Cooper in 2019, has only left the Labor fold twice in the last century and has been safely held by the party since 1972.

At the last federal election, the Greens gained a 6.16 per cent swing against the ALP, although Kearney still won it on a fairly safe 8.7 per cent margin.

Most election analysts believe her buffer against the Greens has shrunk to 7.8 per cent following the redistribution of the seat, which saw Clifton Hill shifted from Melbourne to Cooper — although the Australian Electoral Commission now lists Labor’s margin at a larger 8.9 per cent.

Burnett believes, despite the seat’s history, it’s far from impregnable.

“If I can recreate what we did three years ago, then that brings the margin down to a notional one per cent, which I think is very achievable with the way that we’ve been reaching out to people,” she said.

Burnett has spent her campaign on the ground, speaking to voters and hearing their concerns on the cost of living crisis and climate change.

In that time, she has noticed an all-time low trust in the status quo, with voters desperate to see a change.

“We can’t just keep voting for the same two parties, the same party that has held the seat of Cooper for the better part of a century, and expecting different results,” she said.

“Nothing’s going to change if nothing changes and that’s why we need to look for a bold progressive option.

“That’s why I’m running now and that’s why I’m running with the Greens because we have a plan to get this stuff fixed, to address the rising inequality in our society and move towards a better future rather than the dystopian situation we’re currently faced with.”