| Huong Truong | |
| Birth Date: | [1] |
| Birth Place: | Australia |
| Office: | Member of the Victorian Legislative Council for Western Metropolitan Region |
| Term Start: | 21 February 2018 |
| Term End: | 24 November 2018 |
| Predecessor: | Colleen Hartland |
| Successor: | Kaushaliya Vaghela |
| Party: | Greens |
Thi Viet Huong Truong is a grassroots community organiser,[2] artist[3] and Australian politician, whose parents came from Vietnam as refugees by boat following the Vietnam War.[4]
Truong was a Greens member of the Victorian Legislative Council, having represented Western Metropolitan Region from February 2018, when she was appointed to the vacancy resulting from Colleen Hartland's resignation,[5] [6] until the 2018 Victorian state election.
In July 2024, Truong was preselected by the Greens to contest the then Labor-held Division of Fraser in Melbourne’s west.[7]
Truong was born and raised in Western Melbourne, with their two brothers and three sisters.[8]
Truong's grandparents served in the South Vietnamese Army that fought the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War. In 1975, at the Fall of Saigon, Huong's parents were each chosen by their families to flee Vietnam on fishing boats.
Truong's parents arrived in Australia in 1983 at the Midway Migrant Hostel in Maribyrnong, Victoria, which turned into the Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre.
Truong lived in public housing and went to public schools, such as Maidstone Public School and Braybrook College.
Truong graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts in 2005, and from RMIT with a Master of Social Science in Environment and Planning in 2009. Truong coordinates the University of Melbourne Vietnam Alumni Network for Hanoi.[9]
In 2017, Truong achieved a Dipoma in Leadership and Management with Victorian University Polytechnic.
Truong's first job out of university was at Centrelink as a Bilingual Customer Service Adviser, during the Howard Government years. This first sparked their interest in politics, seeing the first-hand the effects on people of ‘mutual obligation’.[10]
Truong was first a candidate for the Greens to contest the Federal Division of Gorton in 2007 at the age of 24. Truong had joined the Greens only a few months earlier after learning about climate change. The campaign resulted in Truong feeling burnt out, and quitting the Greens before rejoining as a member in 2010.
Truong has previously worked as an Policy and Projects Officer with the Victorian Government Department of Infrastructure in 2007, and as Environmental Planner and Sustainability Coordinator at Brimbank City Council from 2008 to 2018.
Truong has also served as the Co-Covenor of the Australian Victorian Greens Multicultural Working Group in 2017.
In 2017, Huong preselected to step into the Victorian Legislative Assembly to represent the Western Metropolitan Region for the Greens, as Colleen Hartland retired from the Victorian Parliament.[11] Huong was the first Vietnamese-Australia women to serve in any Australian Parliament.[12]
Between 22 February 2018 - 19 December 2018, Huong was also the portfolio holder for Multiculturalism, Youth Affairs, Sustainable Cities, Urban Water, Waste, Environmentally Sustainable Design & Planning and the Prevention of Family Violence, and also served on the Victorian Parliamentary Environment and Planning Committee.
In the 2018 Victorian state election, Huong was not re-elected.
Post working in Victorian Parliament, Truong worked as a organiser with the National Union of Workers[13] to unionise individuals, predominately from the Vietnamese community, in the poultry industry. Truong is also a Founding Member and a contributor to the Vietnamese Australian Forum.[14]
In August 2020, Truong announced candidate for City of Brimbank, for the Harvester Ward, in the 2020 Victorian local elections,[15] before having to withdraw due to health reasons.
Since 2021, Truong has worked in various roles such as a Victorian Greens Statewide Organiser and Office of Gabrielle de Vietri Electoral district of Richmond (Victoria) as Bilingual Electorate Officer before becoming the Australian Greens National Grassroots Organiser in 2022.
In October 2023, Truong unsuccessfully ran for preselection for the Victorian Greens Senator position that would become available when Janet Rice retired.[16]
In July 2024, Truong was preselected by the Greens to contest the then Labor-held Division of Fraser in Melbourne’s west. In the 2021 census, 18.5 per cent of people in Fraser said they had Vietnamese ancestry and 15 per cent were born in Vietnam.