Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is quite possibly one of the hardest contributions that I will make in this House. It is hard to come up with the words to describe and reflect on Joan Kirner and the legacy that she has left behind, particularly in my home state of Victoria. I first met Joan when I was very new to the ALP's women's policy committee. Being young and active, I was very keen and determined to push forward Labor Party policy in the area of women's affairs. Joan came and spoke to our committee. She had this twinkle in her eye. She pulled us younger members aside at the end and said, 'Never lose the spark. Never lose the energy. Make sure you keep fighting.' This was after Joan had had her career in politics. This was after she had been one of the cofounders of EMILY's List. She still had the energy, the passion and the encouragement, and she would infect all of us with that energy every time she spoke, whether it be at a fundraiser, whether it be at a conference. She had a cheekiness about her and a determination and always words of encouragement, particularly for younger women.

I think at this time of my state colleagues. We in Central Victoria have progressive Labor women, EMILY's List women, representing us. At the federal level, I was the first woman to be elected to represent the seat of Bendigo. Jacinta Allan is the state member for Bendigo East. She was the youngest woman ever to be elected to state parliament, and she is the first woman to be elected to represent Bendigo East. Marie Edwards is the state member for Bendigo West. She was the first woman to be elected to the state seat of Bendigo West. We also now have Mary-Anne Thomas, elected in the lower part of the Bendigo electorate to represent the seat of Macedon, Maryanne being the second woman to be elected to the seat of Macedon. Prior to her, Joanne Duncan, another progressive woman, held the seat. All of us come together and work closely together and all of us know that we would not have these opportunities if it were not for the previous generation of sisters, people like Joan Kirner, who really took up the fight to say: 'We can too. We can represent our communities just as good as the men, and we deserve a place in this parliament too.'

Joan was a sister and a great supporter for so many. Yesterday Jacinta Allan, a good friend of mine, was reflecting on Joan's uncanny ability and knack to know when to reach out and give people a call. She was engaged in politics until the very end. Whether she be watching question time or reading a newspaper report, she just knew if people had had a bad day and would give them a call. Shortly after I was preselected, a big fundraiser was held very close to her home town. Joan said, 'If you are going to do a fundraiser, let's make some money.' She wanted to make sure that women candidates contesting elections had the dough. She was a big subscriber to the idea that early money is like yeast: it makes the dough rise. She would really only participate in fundraisers if they could make money to help out women candidates. I am one of the newer MPs, and the last election was my first election, but even when Joan's health was not good, she would still be there. She would still be encouraging women and trying to support progressive women to get preselected. Like many others, my Facebook and social media have been awash with tributes to Joan Kirner and the great role that she played—the mentoring role, the supportive role—to encourage a generation of women to step up and get involved in politics. But it was not just in politics and encouraging women to get involved where Joan was a great sister. She was also a great supporter and sister for working women.

I remember, when I was an organiser at United Voice, it was Joan who came to launch a report that we had done into the crisis going on in Melbourne's luxury hotels. It was a report that spoke about the working conditions of housekeepers, predominantly migrant women. This is long after she had finished in parliament. She came and met with these members, these hard workers, and learnt their stories. It was not a fly-in visit—pop in, do the media conference, launch the report. Joan would take the time to hear their stories, to share their stories. She had a great ability to listen, to reflect and also to encourage and motivate. On this particular day, the housekeepers were quite nervous—not because they were about to talk to the media and share their stories, but because they had the opportunity to meet Joan Kirner, the first woman premier of our state. How shy they were, these wonderful union members and very strong committed workplace delegates. That was the impact that Joan had on so many women—not just women in parliament, but women in our community. Her leadership, her passion and her convictions encouraged so many women to step up; and her legacy will not just be a legacy that people like myself and other women in parliament will seek to see expanded and to build on, but is also about the encouragement she had for so many other women in our community.

Joan was a fierce political advocate and it should be noted that establishing EMILY's List was about preselecting and supporting progressive women. You had to subscribe to a certain set of values to be an EMILY's List candidate. It is something that Joan never wavered from. She would also encourage, seek out and support progressive men—men who, in this place, would support policies that saw gender equality; who would support policies that advanced the status of women. She was not anti-men; she just said that men need to be supportive of women, and that is another part of Joan's legacy that we need to note at this sad time: the role she played in advancing the status of women in terms of public policy.

There will be a number of public areas that we acknowledge over the next couple of days, towards Friday. Some of those will be the role she played in helping to advance the status of women both in parliament and in public policy; the role she played in education, being such a strong public advocate for public education; the role she played in the environment in helping to bring together farmers and conservationists to help form Landcare, which is still very active and strong today; and the role she played in the state of Victoria in helping a government and a state get through some very troublesome times. She—as the previous speaker, my good friend from Scullin, said—also took a sledgehammer to the glass ceiling. She said that women can be leaders. She challenged a media that would pick on her for her clothing and that would make some pretty appalling comments, from the dog-whistling that would happen in the parliament to outside. She stared them down and said, 'You must not only respect me as a person but respect the office.'

It is because of women like Joan that it is possible for young women like myself to put my hand up and come into a Caucus, into a party and into a parliament that is inclusive. I do not face the same barriers that Joan faced when she first entered parliament because she helped break down those barriers. I will forever be grateful for what she has done for the state of Victoria, for women in parliament and for women in politics. I just hope that my generation of young politicians, of women, can step up to the bar—which she set very high—to make sure that more and more women have the same opportunities that Joan so strongly wanted all of us to have.

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