Samantha Ratnam

Samantha Ratnam is a Social worker and an Australian politician, member of the Australian Greens, a councillor and mayor of City of Moreland.

Born in Sri Lanka, Samantha Ratnam and her family left the country after the 1983 riots in Colombo that gave rise to the country’s 30-year internal war between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils. The family eventually settled in Australia after spending time in Europe and Canada.

From 1995 to 2001 Samantha Ratnam completed a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and a Bachelor of Social Work (Hons) from University of Melbourne. She completed in 2015 her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Youth Sociology - Young People and Citizenship, also from the University of Melbourne.

Ratnam has worked in various roles in assisting migrants and asylum seekers including at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, in the fields of drug and alcohol rehabilitation, mental health and international development.

In April 2014 Samantha Ratnam explained in The Indian Sun online Indian community in Australia how she is a product of diaspora and her motivations for entering politics.

Ratnam first stood for and was elected to the City of Moreland Council for South Ward in 2012 as one of three Ward Councillors. In 2016 she was re-elected with her vote more than doubling to over 55 percent of the ward vote.

In 2015 she was elected by councillors as the first Greens mayor of Moreland for 2016 in a 6 to 5 vote with Independent Councillor Helen Davidson and Socialist Alliance Councillor Sue Bolton supporting her bid for the mayor. Her election as Mayor was even noted in her country of birth, Sri Lanka, and by the Indian community in Australia, and in Tamil culture.

With 2016 federal election the Greens preselected Ratnam to stand in the Division of Wills, where the sitting MP Kelvin Thomson was retiring.

During the election campaign Ratnam was invited as a speaker to address an anti-racism rally in the Victoria Street mall in Coburg. With the threat of violence raised by right wing racist groups such as the United Patriots Front organising a counter rally in Bridge Reserve nearby, Ratnam withdrew from attending just two days before the rally. The advertised anti-racism rally occurred without violence, however at Bridge Reserve and on Bell street, Coburg other left-wing anti-racist protesters confronted the right wing protestors with the police taking the opportunity to use pepper spray. Subsequently, Samantha Ratnam wrote an opinion article for SBS on Racism and why she chose not to attend the rally. One of the organisers of the rally, Cr Sue Bolton, also wrote an opinion article on why it was essential for the anti-racism rally to be held, despite right wing threats to disrupt it and calls by others on Council to cancel it.

Although Ratnam substantially increased the Greens vote by greater than 10 percent in Wills, the Labor candidate Peter Khalil won the seat with a 4.88 percent margin.

As a Social Work PhD student Samantha Ratnam contributed to a number of peer reviewed research papers and academic books including:

• The Nobody's Clients Project: Identifying and Addressing the Needs of Children with Substance Dependent Parents: Full Report - 2004 - Odessy Institute of Studies ISBN 0975714805
• Identifying Children's Needs When Parents Access Drug Treatment: The Utility of a Brief Screening Measure - 12 Oct 2008 - Taylor and Francis Online[1]
• Global Connections: ‘A Tool for Active Citizenship’ - 20 Oct 2009 - Taylor and Francis Online[2]
• Youth-led Learning: Local Connections & Global Citizenship. Australian Youth Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, 2008 ISBN 0734039859
• Chapter 12 Young People and the future in For We Are Young And ...: Young People in a Time of Uncertainty (Book) By Johanna Wyn, Roger Holdsworth, Sally Beadle - Melbourne Univ. Publishing, 15 Mar. 2011 ISBN 9780522858365
• Chapter 4 Citizenship beyond status: New paradigms for citizenship education, in Educating for Global Citizenship: A Youth-led Approach to Learning and Partnership by Ani Wierenga, Jose Roberto Guevara. Melbourne Univ. Publishing, 1 Feb. 2013 ISBN 9780522861006
• Young people and global citizenship: new possibilities for civic participation. 2015 (PhD thesis)[3]