Henry Kissinger reportedly said: “90 per cent of the politicians give the other ten per cent a bad reputation.”

If this is true, then Senator Janet Rice is one of the other ten per cent.

The Greens Senator for Victoria delivered her first speech in Parliament in August this year, and has already drawn attention, and some criticism, for her passion, forthrightness, and unusual approach.

First, there’s the cycling. Before she delivered her speech, Senator Rice cycled her push bike from Melbourne to Canberra for her first week in Parliament, dubbing it a “listening tour” and doing something politicians rarely do anymore – listened to the “ordinary people” on the ground as she cycled from town to town.

“I thought it’d be a really good way to get to Canberra,” she tells upstart.

“I needed to get my bike to Canberra somehow … so it was a great opportunity to travel across regional Victoria, and get to meet a lot of the people.”

It is an unheard of way travel interstate, but seems perfect for Rice considering she developed the Ride to Work day in 1994, a program that’s still going strong with over 50,000 registrations altogether.

Then there are the possums. When she finally stood up in the Senate, Rice delivered a speech that covered issues such as climate change, same sex marriage, deforestation, and renewable energy. A chunk of time was also given to the leadbeater’s possum, which Rice points out is the animal emblem for Victoria.

The next day The Australian published an article headlined: ‘Meet Janet Rice, senator for the possums’.

Such an introduction might ruffle the feathers – or in this case fur – of some, but Rice laughs it off.

“Absolutely, happy to be senator for the possums.”

Her laugh is full throated and sounds carefree, but the seriousness of the task ahead is immediately apparent when she adds that she focused on the leadbeater’s possum in her speech because it is likely to be listed as critically endangered as soon as December this year.

“We just can’t let it go extinct under our watch,” she says.

Rice describes climate change as “an ongoing passion”. She studied climate science at the University of Melbourne and describes the course as “politicising” her.

She has spent many years getting her hands dirty in environmental activism roles, spanning way back to the famous Gordon below Franklin river campaign and stretching all the way to the current fight in East Gippsland against coal seam gas mining. She even appeared in a documentary, Gippsland is Precious, which was produced as a not-for-profit by film and television producer Pennie Brown

“As well as being a scientist I wanted to be an activist, and then to be a campaigner,” Rice says.

“So it’s about turning that scientific knowledge into action, and yeah that’s certainly driven me.”

But as a university graduate and activist she quickly realised it wasn’t enough.

“At the end of the day it’s people that have to make the changes, and it’s government that can make those changes,” she says.

“We needed to have people in our Parliament that were really passionate about environmental protection and social justice.”

And passionate she is.

In the early 1990s Rice “threw” herself into helping to found The Greens in Victoria, and stood for election for the first time in 1996 for the seat of Jellibrand, finally being elected as councillor for the City of Maribyrnong in 2003.

Rice says being elected into the Senate is just all of that work “coming full circle”.

But her approach to politics hasn’t been the only thing that has grabbed attention.

Rice is in a same-sex relationship with her partner, Penny Whetton, and the pair are legally married.

Whetton underwent a gender transition after 16 years of marriage. The pair have two sons.

This has given Rice the support of marriage equality campaigners across the country who see it as proof that marriage is about love, not gender.

But their matrimonial bliss still had to go through its own set of unique challenges, though Rice points out that these come from the reactions of the media rather than anything internal to their marriage.

“[There were] many more challenges when it was closer to Penny’s transition and it was seen as being a something of prurient interest really,” Rica says.

“I think it’s much better to just say here we are, this is who we are. It was a realignment of how I had viewed my sexuality, but the bottom line is we still loved each other and still do.”

But Rice has been described as being unusually forthright about her personal life, despite the “prurient interest”.

“We’re a normal couple, so the only way to do that is really just to be open about it. So Penny’s certainly featured in my first speech, she’s featured in other media coverage, and I haven’t had any bad reactions from that.”

“I think people who feel that that’s a problem, well that’s their problem, not ours.”

Jessie Anne Gartlan is a Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University. Follow her on Twitter: @jessieanne08

Feature Image: janetrice.com.au