Jax Fox

Jax P. Fox is an Australian politician and businessperson who served as a councillor on Hobart City Council from 2018 to 2022. Fox was the first elected political officeholder in Tasmania to be openly non-binary.

Early life

Fox was born Holly A. Ewin to very conservative Christian parents. They were homeschooled and the family generally didn't live in one place for more than a few months at a time for most of Fox's childhood and teenage years.

Fox was Hobart's first ever councillor, following a successful motion they put forward at their first council meeting to allow members of the Hobart City Council to choose to go by either councillor or aldermen rather than being confined to the latter.

In July 2019, Fox introduced a motion in support of pill testing at festivals and events to the Hobart City Council Community, Culture and Events committee which was passed unanimously. The motion however did not allow for the council to conduct pill testing as the council would require permission of the Tasmanian state government to do so, however the council intended begin lobbying the state government at a later date to grant that permission. The lobbying would following a review and not occur until after the then soon to be released New South Wales inquest into drug-related deaths at music festivals so that its findings could be incorporated.

Run for second term Fox ran for reelection in the 2022 Hobart City Council election and came in 12th place on first preference votes, however the 13th candidate surpassed them to take the 12th council seat on the distribution of preferences and Fox placed 13th in the final result.

State politics Fox ran as the third Tasmanian Greens candidate in Franklin in the 2018 Tasmanian state election. They placed second on first preference votes among the five Greens candidates however only the lead candidate Rosalie Woodruff was elected.

In the 2021 Tasmanian state election, Fox ran as an ungrouped independent candidate in Clark. They came in 9th place out of 11 among groups and individual ungrouped candidates and received 0.8% of first-preference votes or 0.5 quotas.

Personal life Fox is non-binary, coming out publicly and changing their name part way through their term on Hobart City Council. At the time of Fox's election, they were only going by Jax Fox with very close friends.

In 2019 Fox was homeless, resorting to living in a boat docked at Derwent Sailing Squadron during 2019 after their lease expired and they were unable to find a new rental in the face of Hobart's housing crisis.

Awards In 2020, Fox won the Young Professional of the Year category at that year's Out For Australia 30 Under 30 Awards.