Tamara Smith

Our community deserves a progressive voice that will represent our interests in the NSW Parliament.

“Everything is moot on a warming planet.”

Tamara Smith is the Member for Ballina in the Legislative Assembly of the NSW Parliament. She is a member of the NSW Parliament Law and Safety Committee and is an Adjunct Fellow in the School of law and Justice at Southern Cross University. 

At the election in March 2015, Tamara became the first woman to hold the seat of Ballina and the first Greens MP in a regional seat in any Parliament of Australia. Tamara is in her second term and was re-elected in March 2019. 

Tamara acknowledges the over 60,000 years of continuous Aboriginal ownership of the land on which she lives and the land of her electorate. She pays her respects to Elders past, present and emerging and recognises that the land was stolen, never ceded and that true Self Determination through legal rights is of the highest priority.  

Tamara’s family has lived in the Northern Rivers region for four generations. She is part of a legacy of activists and environmentalists in The Northern Rivers who have defended old growth forests, protected biodiversity hot spots, resisted Coal Seam Gas exploration, delivered the Cape Byron Marine Park and who continue to stave off inappropriate development right across the region.

Tamara was a secondary school teacher for many years in remote and rural NSW and has been a staunch member of the NSW Teachers Federation for 21 years. In 2002 she became the first female President of the Barrier Teachers Association in 60 years.  

Tamara was admitted as a solicitor of the NSW Supreme Court in 2012 and has a keen interest in environmental law, feminism, social justice, Aboriginal affairs, public education advocacy and Human Rights. 

She holds State-wide portfolios for the NSW Greens in Climate Change, Marine and Fisheries, Agriculture, Tourism, Regional Communities, Older People and the North Coast. Her electorate covers 1,100 square kilometres of rural and regional coastal landscapes and is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the east coast of Australia.

Tamara's Portfolios

• Agriculture
• Climate Change
• Regional Communities (including Regional Development)
• Tourism
• Region: North Coast