Tanya Plibersek On Why She’ll Never Take Her Seat of Sydney For Granted

Tanya Plibersek will have held the seat of Sydney for half her life next year, having been elected to the position when she was just 28.

Shortly before our interview begins, Plibersek is approached by a local, asking for a photo with her.

She agrees breezily, and the pair chat as her staffer snaps a picture of the two of them. The exchange is brief, but it encapsulates Plibersek’s status as a local member – she’s admired in the community, but hasn’t created so much distance between herself and her constituents that she’s untouchable. 

She’s still warm and approachable, even after holding her role for so long. Sydney is one of the safest Labor seats in the country, but Plibersek says it’s not something she takes for granted.

“As a local member, I really feel like I take the responsibilities of my local community seriously,” she tells City Hub. “And I’ve been around for a while.”

“I make sure that I continue to work with organisations in our local community to improve quality of life for residents… making sure that physically the needs of the electorate are met, and making sure that we have good, strong community connection and cohesion.”

She had been expecting to carry her shadow portfolios as education and women’s minister through when Labor formed government in 2022, and taking on the responsibility of environment minister hasn’t been easy.

In the midst of a climate crisis, the environment portfolio is a hard job to manage, and Plibersek has inevitably faced backlash, but when I ask how she wants people to remember her time in the role, she says she’s really proud of what she and her team have achieved in a little under three years. 

“I think the environment is one of the areas where we absolutely can’t afford to rest on our laurels, because we’ve got a lot of making up for lost time.”

Time is a luxury we do not have. After all, 2025 is an election year, and the prospect of a Dutton-led approach to the climate crisis is like something out of a horror movie.

“I’ve approved 80 renewable energy projects. That’s 10 million homes worth of renewable energy that we’ve approved — almost every house in Australia,” Plibersek says. “It is an enormous transition, and it’s happening right now. 10,000 extra jobs in renewables. That stops if Peter Dutton gets elected.”

Politicians like Dutton stand in stark contrast to people like Plibersek – through their actions and policies, it’s easy to tell that they both entered government for entirely different reasons.

“I think a big motivator for me with politics was that my parents came here from what was then Yugoslavia in the 1950s,” Plibersek says. “They left in the middle of the night, escaped the country with closed borders as refugees… My brothers and I were the first in our families on either side ever to go to university. 

“I feel like it’s my responsibility to turn that around, to make sure that the next generation have at least the opportunity that I did, that they inherit a country where they can afford a home, get a job with decent pay and conditions, that’s secure and predictable.”

It’s clear Tanya Plibersek cares a great deal for the Australia that’s provided her with a free education, given her security, and allowed her to raise a family. It’s a dream she holds not only for her children, but for anyone who wishes to make their home here. 

“I remember the first day I walked into Parliament House, before I was elected, when I was working there, and I just thought, ‘what a country that someone with my background can participate in our democracy in this way.’”

Tanya Plibersek On Why She’ll Never Take Her Seat of Sydney For Granted is our cover feature for the April issue of City Hub. See our print editions here.