Holt Labor Candidate Cassandra Fernando won a seat at the 2022 Australian federal election which held on 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. Cassandra Fernando in Holt will be the first SriLankan born woman in Parliament as at the time of writing she leads by 10,408 votes.
Cassandra Fernando was born in Sri Lanka and came to Australia with her parents in 1999 at the age of 11. She grew up in Dandenong North, Victoria, and holds a diploma in hospitality and a certificate in education support. Fernando worked at Woolworths in Dandenong Plaza for almost 15 years, including as a pastry chef. She became a delegate to the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) and subsequently worked as an SDA organiser for five years.
She is a member of the Labor Right faction, which was granted the right to preselect the candidate in Holt despite the left faction having larger membership numbers in the seat.
