Sarah Henderson ready for next bout

SARAH Henderson is a self-confessed fearsome warrior for the people she represents.

As the sitting Member for Corangamite she has just over 110,000 voters in a diverse electorate covering almost 5,500 square kilometres.

Ms Henderson said she has always stood up for people as a journalist and a lawyer and now as politician.

“I have always pursued justice, that really underpins so much of my work as a Member of Parliament,” she said.

Elected in 2013, after a career in journalism and law, Ms Henderson was re-elected in 2016.

She’s the eldest of three children, growing up in Geelong and graduating from Geelong College.

Her dad was a home town solicitor as well as an elected Councillor and Mayor while her mum was the Member for Geelong in the Victorian government from 1992-1999.

Community involvement was a way of life for her family with her mother running Legacy and her father working with organisations such Apex.

Ms Henderson said she thinks a lot of that has rubbed off on her.

“I grew up understanding that service to the community is something you do with a great deal of honour and it is also very humbling,” she said.

“Fundamentally I have been driven by a great sense of justice.”

She said she represents her constituents in many different ways.

As an advocate she works for individuals, families, businesses, farmers and the community in general.

The approach she takes is that every community and person matter, whether it is delivering major projects such as road and rail upgrades or looking after families who have hit a crisis.

“I do this with a great deal of pride and also with my heart and my soul,” Ms Henderson said.

“I spend a lot of time travelling to the corners of the electorate, standing up and fighting for the people I represent.”

As a pugilist for the people she is familiar with hard work and long hours.

She grew up with a strong work ethic, setting the bar high in all her endeavours. She started work at 17 years of age as a cadet journalist for Chanel 7 news in Melbourne.

Seven years later Ms Henderson joined the ABC where she worked for The Investigators and 7.30 Report.

She won a prestigious Walkley award for her coverage of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.

Ms Henderson said she always had a great love of the law.

She undertook a law degree at Monash while working for the ABC.

Her career in journalism and law have shaped her as a politician.

“Every day I am fighting for someone or fighting for a particular issue,” she said. “I know if mum and dad were alive today, they would be very proud of me.”