At her first election campaign in 1984, media interest was focused on the NDP Senate candidate for New South Wales, Midnight Oil's singer Peter Garrett.
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As a young woman she travelled to the United States and was moved to hear and meet Robert F. Kennedy.
Jo Vallentine continued as a catalyst of the Australian Greens through her status as a WA Greens senator from 1990 until her resignation on health grounds in 1992.