Lucy Horodny

Who is Lucy Horodny?

Lucy Alesia Horodny is an Australian politician and environmentalist.

Horodny, who is of Ukrainian descent, first made her name as an activist for the Wilderness Society. She made a move into politics in 1995, when she ran as a Greens candidate for the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. She subsequently defeated liberal independent Helen Szuty, and took her place as one of two new Green members in the Assembly, alongside Kerrie Tucker.

Immediately after the 1995 election, Horodny and Tucker caused some controversy among sections of the left wing when they supported the installation of the conservative Kate Carnell as Chief Minister - though they often clashed with Carnell and her party in parliament over social and environmental issues.

In her one term in the Legislative Assembly, she was a strong advocate for environmental causes, both inside the ACT, such as the preservation of the Black Mountain area, and outside, such as her attempts to save Tasmania's environmentally sensitive Tarkine wilderness area from logging and development. She also advocated for several progressive causes, such as a bid to legalise voluntary euthanasia in the ACT. She also vocally opposed the demolition of the Royal Canberra Hospital, preferring that the buildings be reused, and later, once the demolition became inevitable, opposed the government's preferred method, implosion, on environmental grounds.