Senate debates

Thursday, 10 August 2017

Condolences

Giles, Senator Patricia Jessie AM

4:10 pm

Photo of Louise PrattLouise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I, like others in this chamber, rise today to pay tribute to the formidable former Senator Patricia Giles—a feminist, a unionist, an advocate for equity and justice and an inspiration to so many women in our nation, including myself.

As others in this chamber have highlighted, Pat was a real trailblazer for women. In the year I was born, Pat and four other women made history in Perth by running in local government campaigns on a women's liberation ticket. Never before had women run on a platform of things like reproductive rights and childcare access. During that time, she was known to have doorknocked tirelessly, talking to migrant women about their hopes of liberation and talking to young women about access to and costs of contraception. While neither Pat nor any of the other women were elected at that election it did indeed herald a new era of women engaging with women in WA about women's issues and the kinds of things that mattered to them. I am certainly a great beneficiary of that legacy.

It would be no surprise to people to know that Pat worked to help found the Women's Electoral Lobby in Western Australia. My mother tells me that she went to a few WEL meetings with me in tow as a toddler at the time. As others have highlighted, Pat was the first woman elected to the WA Trades and Labour Council executive, which is an enormous achievement and moment in time when you look at the male domination of the trade union movement at the time. She was also an executive member of the Health Education Council of Western Australia and the first woman to chair a committee on discrimination in employment and occupation. As others have highlighted, she was on the first ACTU women's committee and she argued before the WA Industrial Commission for maternity leave, which was granted to women in private employment back in 1980. That was such an enormous achievement which generations of women and their children and their families have now benefitted from.

Pat chaired the World Health Organization's Global Commission on Women's Health and was the ACTU's representative on the tripartite committee on women's employment in Australia, which was a subcommittee of the National Labour Consultative Committee on Women's Employment. These were such new and emerging areas at the time, and it was fantastic to have had an opportunity years ago to speak to Pat about how amazing those times were and how motivated they were in really looking at their feminist values and implementing that. That is something that I have taken great inspiration from over many decades.

She led the Australian delegation to the United Nations Decade for Women meetings in the 1980s. After Pat retired from the Senate, I recall early in my years in the party her engagement with the UN, and it was part of my early thinking in joining the Labor Party and thinking about my own feminist values to look to her for those international perspectives on feminism and reproductive rights. They are traditions that I hold strong and I'm very grateful to have had handed down to me.

It's clear that for Pat—and this is something I certainly identify with—a senator was not a professional milestone in itself but another step in her long history of fighting for the rights of women. No matter what or where she was, or what she was doing, Pat fought for women. I don't think our country would be what it is today without Pat and that generation of women who she had with her in this place, if it weren't for the fight that they put in for all of the things that they achieved.

The blurb on her book that's dedicated to her life reads:

This is the story of a woman whose determination never faltered, whose work ethic never flagged. It is the story of an activist working from within the established order to effect social change.

In that sense, her life has been so much more than just a list of her achievements. In every sense, it's a life well lived, although I can imagine that at times life with Pat was probably not always easy, given the demands on her. So I really want to thank and pay tribute to Pat's family for all the care and support they've given her over the years—particularly in more recent years.

Pat was indeed an inspiration and mentor to many women coming up through the Labor Party, and I am one of them. I would not be the activist and senator I am today without the influence of Pat and the other strong women who came before me.

Pat fought discrimination wherever she went, wherever she saw it, and she encouraged others, even though they thought they were friendless. She never had ambition for herself except to inspire others to recognise that, no matter what is said, women are equal to men in every respect of life and, as such, they deserve the same pay, rights and opportunities in every aspect of our society. It's incredible that those ideas were really only just starting to push through back in the 1980s. I feel privileged to have been brought into the fold by that group of feminist women in WA to continue that fight.

Pat made a great many contributions to this place. In 1983, she asked a question to the Attorney-General Gareth Evans that illustrates her humour—and others have commented on it this afternoon as well. It displays her wit and drive. With the indulgence of senators, I'll quote briefly from the Hansard:

In view of a biased and ill-informed campaign by the League of Rights and the organisation known as Women Who Want to be Women against the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, can the Attorney-General please explain the reasons for and the implications of ratification of this important Convention, action which, I might say, is supported by all reputable established Australian women's organisations? Is there any truth at all in the assertions of drastic impositions upon Australian society such as the elimination of gender by law or at least the conscription of all 18-year-old girls into the defence forces?

That is a wonderful display of not only Pat's humour but her formidable critical analysis of the issues before this parliament. In reading that piece of Hansard, I reflected on how Senator Giles would perhaps approach a contemporary debate like the one we've been having this week on marriage equality. Pat always fought against inequality and discrimination in all its forms. This week, especially, it is sad to have lost a giant in the fight for equality.

The legacy of Patricia Giles will live on. It will live on in the many fights we are still to have about equal pay for women, affordable child care, fair wages and working conditions, and the value of women's work. It will certainly live on in the work of The Patricia Giles Centre in WA, providing support for women who are survivors of domestic violence. Most of all, Pat will continue to inspire a new generation of women to stand up and fight for what is right. I want to extend my deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. But I celebrate her life and, indeed, her wonderful contribution to our nation. Thank you.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.

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