Hannah Vardy is a fourth-year Law and Science student at the Australian National University, and this election, she’s hoping to become Australia’s youngest ever senator — at just 21-years-old. Running alongside current Independent senator for the ACT, David Pocock, Vardy is hoping to bring a young person’s perspective to Parliament.

Speaking to Woroni, Vardy says she has always been interested in science and how the world works. To her, law seemed like the perfect complement to better understand governance and how to effect change. She is majoring in climate science and the intersection of those two degrees reflects a long-standing passion of hers: climate action. Vardy has led the ACT Youth Climate Coalition for the past two years.

Vardy attributes her passion for climate action to the 2019-2020 bushfires. In the ACT alone, the fires burned through approximately 90,000 hectares of land. As an asthmatic, it was a particularly difficult time for her and many people she knew. She says, “[My] passion was born out of the total lack of action we saw from the Morrison government on climate change.”

When asked if she always saw herself going into politics, Vardy said it wasn’t something she imagined a few years ago. But when the opportunity came up, she was very keen to get young people’s voices into the political sphere, citing the under representation of different generations in Parliament. Currently, 7.6 percent of federal politicians are aged under 40-years-old, despite the fact that 28 percent of the Australian population is aged between 20 to 40-years-old. Vardy spoke about how policies surrounding housing, the climate, and cost of living all impact young people, but “the decisions made often do not represent what is in our long-term best interests.” She continued on to say, “We need young people in politics. We need young people who are providing new and fresh and innovative solutions to some of these really tricky crises that we’re facing at the moment.” She also believes it is important to show other young people that politics is a place where they are welcome and that they can take part in the discussion.

Not many people decide to run for office, especially while still at university. Vardy said it was “slightly wild” and “unexpected” when telling friends and family of her decision. However, she has worked for Pocock for the past year and been actively involved and engaged in politics, so everyone was supportive of her decision.

Vardy referenced two key reasons to her decision to run as an independent alongside Pocock. The first reason is his commitment to long-term decision-making. Unlike the political parties that are on short-term, three-year election cycles, she believes that independents are better at considering the long-term implications of decisions and asking the questions that matter, like “what [do] we want this country to look like in thirty years?” She said there is a need for politicians to “make decisions like we want to be here for a long time” and ensure that young people are set up with a prosperous country. The second reason, she explains, is Pocock’s commitment to consulting the community and “making sure that people’s voices are heard”. She commended him for genuinely wanting to draw on experts in the ACT and the community’s expectations when faced with a big piece of legislation, rather than just voting alongside a particular political party.

The importance of climate action appears just as relevant when talking about her ticket’s key policies. Despite her own observation that climate change has shifted as a priority amid the cost-of-living crisis, Vardy firmly believes that the climate crisis lies at the crux of many issues facing voters and the continued “band aid” solutions by the major parties are not enough anymore.

Woroni asked Vardy about what the Pocock ticket is proposing to do differently for three key issues impacting students. 

On Climate

One topic that came up repeatedly with Vardy was her advocacy for the Duty of Care campaign. In 2023, Pocock introduced the Climate Change Amendment (Duty of Care and Intergenerational Equity) Bill 2023, which aimed to urge politicians to consider the consequences of their decisions on the climate and future generations. Despite gaining over 25,000 supporters, the bill was ultimately rejected. Vardy promises that this bill will be used in minority government negotiations in a situation where neither party is able to form government without the backing of minor parties or independents. She said that many people she talked to were “astounded that [the bill] wasn’t already a thing”. The pair are also committed to pushing for the overhaul of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, which in their view is failing to meet current conservation needs.

On HECS

Vardy welcomes Labor’s promise to wipe 20 percent of student debt but she doesn’t believe this is enough. She references this as an example of where politicians have failed to address the root cause of the problem. She proposes that the timing of indexation needs to be fixed so that graduates aren’t paying interest on money that has already been paid back. Modelling released by the Parliamentary Budget Office found that this could save students around $704 million in debt over four years. Vardy also advocates for fixing the Job Ready Graduates package introduced by the previous Coalition government that increased the fees of certain degrees. She said that she doesn’t know anyone who has changed what they are studying because of the cost, but she does know many students now left with high levels of debt. 

On Medicare

Vardy recognised that access to bulk-billed GP appointments is increasingly difficult in the ACT. Pocock’s platform promises to push for changing the ACT’s Modified Monash Model (MMM) classification to gain access to higher Medicare rebates, especially since the bulk-billing rates are lower in the ACT than in many regional areas as they identified. The MMM classifies areas based on their remoteness to determine eligibility for health services, resources and funding. They also promise to make sure ACT receives the public hospital funding they are entitled to. Their campaign website says the ACT “receive[s] less than the promised Commonwealth Contribution rate of 45% agreed by National Cabinet”. 

To those who may think she’s too young to be a senator, Vardy says her age doesn’t mean she isn’t experienced. In her view, the current Parliament is not representative of the diversity of ages in Australia and she is ready to ensure the interests of young people are heard.

When asked where she’ll be come the evening of May 3, Vardy says she will be at Pocock’s election night party in the city. She’s looking forward to spending time with the volunteers who have made this senate bid possible and celebrating their accomplishments over the past few weeks. And of course, keeping a keen eye on the results!