Jana Naretha Anne Stewart (born 27 August 1987) is an Australian politician and former public servant. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was appointed as a Senator for Victoria in April 2022, filling the vacancy caused by the death of Kimberley Kitching.
Stewart is an Aboriginal Australian of the Muthi Muthi and Wamba-Wamba peoples.[1] Her great-grandmother Alice Kelly was a custodian of Lake Mungo in New South Wales and was involved in negotiations over the Lake Mungo remains.[2]
Stewart was born around 1987[3] and grew up in Melbourne and Swan Hill, Victoria.[4] She is the oldest of six children and experienced family violence as a child. She attended "at least a dozen" primary schools, and was the only Indigenous student at her high school to finish year 12.[2] She completed a master's degree in clinical family therapy at La Trobe University.[5]
Prior to entering politics, Stewart worked as a family therapist, university lecturer, and policy adviser on Aboriginal affairs and child protection.[5] She worked for Victorian state Aboriginal affairs minister Natalie Hutchins on treaty negotiations.[2] She was a later a deputy secretary of the Victorian Department of Justice focusing on Stolen Generations reparations.[6]
Stewart is a member of the Labor Unity faction and is associated with the Transport Workers' Union.[6]
At the 2019 federal election she was preselected for the House of Representatives seat of Kooyong. She placed third, with 17 percent of the vote on a negative swing of four points, behind incumbent federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Greens candidate Julian Burnside.[7]
In late 2021, Stewart won ALP preselection for the seat of Pascoe Vale at the 2022 Victorian state election. She withdrew following her nomination to the Senate in March 2022.[8]
In March 2022, Stewart was nominated to fill a casual vacancy in the Senate caused by the death of Victorian senator Kimberley Kitching.[6] She also won ALP preselection for the Senate ticket at the 2022 federal election.[9]
She was officially appointed to the Senate at a joint sitting of the Victorian Parliament on 6 April 2022. However, the Senate did not sit between her appointment and the imminent election.[10][1]
Stewart took her seat after the 2022 federal election. She is the youngest Aboriginal woman to serve in the federal parliament.[3]
On 28 February 2024, Stewart was elected chair of the federal parliament Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, a position previously held by Pat Dodson.[11]
Jana is partnered with Marcus Stewart, former Co-Chair of the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria.[12][13]
She and her partner have two children, Jude and Ari.[14][15]
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