Throughout her working life, Carbines remained active in politics, having been a party member since university. She was the secretary of Labor's
Belmont branch in 1994, and of the
Portarlington branch from 1995 to 1997. In 1996, she made an unsuccessful bid for the seat of
Bellarine in the
Legislative Assembly. She was a delegate to the party's state conference, representing the federal electorate of
Corangamite, from 1995 to 2009. Carbines was also actively involved in several environmental campaigns, most notably the attempt to stop the move of the
Coode Island chemical plant to the environmentally sensitive
Point Lillias, and a proposal to build a rowing course on the site of the Belmont Common, another environmentally sensitive area on the outskirts of
Geelong. When Carbines won Labor pre-selection to make a second run for office - this time for the
Legislative Council seat of Geelong Province in the lead-up to the 1999 state election, the campaign against both developments became a key part of her platform. On election day, she received a swing of nearly five percent, and defeated sitting Liberal member
Bill Hartigan on preferences. Carbines was a member of the Road Safety and Library Committees in her first three years in office. She also led the Live Music Taskforce, which attempted to solve issues related to live music venues in Melbourne perceived to be under threat due to noise complaints and development. In March 2002, in the leadup to the election due later that year, she was made Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Training. In December that year, after Labor's election victory, she was instead made Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment. Carbines was a vocal advocate on issues of broader social significance, such as the treatment of refugees, recognition of the
Australian Aboriginal flag and the issue of
Tibetan independence movement. As a member of the Parliamentary Friends of Tibet Group, Carbines was among those who put their names to an advertisement taken out by the Australia-Tibet Council during a visit to Australia by Chinese President
Hu Jintao in 2003. Rumours began circulating as early as 2004 that Carbines would face a challenge to her preselection for the
2006 state election due to factional manoeuvring, with local media reporting in October 2005 that she was facing the prospect of being placed in an unwinnable position on the Labor Party's ticket for the newly created
Western Victoria Region. Carbines lost her seat to
Peter Kavanagh of the
Democratic Labor Party after a recount. == Post politics ==