Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with pleasure that I rise today to make a contribution that both honours and celebrates the life of the Hon. Joan Kirner AC. Joan was much loved, and she will be terribly missed by so many in our community. While perhaps most well known as Victoria's first, and so far only, female premier, Joan was, of course, so much more. For a generation of Labor women, including myself, Joan was a mentor and inspiration. She had a solid grounding in community activism prior to entering politics, and this was a passion and commitment that never waned for Joan, and one that she actively encouraged in everyone that she met along the way.

Just as important, Joan lived her life strengthened with the knowledge that women can indeed to do anything. In 2012, when accepting her appointment as a Companion of the Order of Australia, Joan spoke of the pride of being the first female premier of Victoria. She said:

[Now] young women and their daughters know that they can be premiers, they can be leaders of the state, and they can be leaders of the nation.

My mother used to say to me, 'You can do anything as a girl that you want to do', and I believe that.

Joan will be remembered for her passionate commitment to social justice, her unswerving belief in educational opportunities, her courage and determination for gender equality and her insistence on profound cultural change for Labor in the form of affirmative action.

Having founded EMILY's List in Australia in 1996, Joan remained a staunch champion of the key principles of equity, child care, equal pay, choice and diversity to the very end. Her ongoing work with EMILY's List has now provided an important financial, political and personal support network for some 400 women in their campaigns for public office, resulting in more than 200 progressive Labor women being elected to Australian parliaments. It is an amazing achievement in less than two decades. I am one of those women and a very proud member of EMILY's List, indebted to all those women who came before me to help pave the way for Labor women to actively participate at all levels of decision making both in the Australian Labor Party and in our local, state and federal parliaments. I want to thank Joan Kirner, along with Carmen Lawrence, Kay Setches, Helen Creed and Julia Gillard, for having the courage to fight for the inclusion of affirmative action policies in the ALP more than two decades ago—a matter to which I will return.

It was Joan's belief in the capacity of women to do well in whatever fields they chose to pursue—her encouragement, her warmth and wisdom, her commitment to ensure that there were always support structures in place when you needed them—that made your encounters with Joan Kirner unforgettable. I want to share with the House my recollections of Joan's visit to Newcastle in 2004. I was a younger woman thinking about the challenges of local government at the time, attending a large gathering of progressive women from across Newcastle and Joan was the special guest. It was an EMILY's List Australia function hosted by the then federal member for Newcastle Sharon Grierson. The room was packed with women who were really excited to meet Joan. She made every woman in that room feel special, that they were capable of doing whatever they set their sights on. It gave women like me the courage to say, 'Yes, I'm going to put my hand up for that next preselection round'. She had made sure that there were structures in my party, whether you needed them or not, to make sure that women had an equal chance of being a preselected to contest seats in Australian parliaments.

That night in Newcastle Joan inspired so many women of my generation—and indeed, the next generation—to take up membership with EMILY's List and to become active and vocal supporters of the organisation. The transformation of the Labor Party through affirmative action has in fact been immense. The Labor Party is now a place where women can succeed with the support of affirmative action; indeed, there is a very timely report on this matter out at the moment. It is now 20 years on since affirmative action rules were put in place and the proportion of elected Labor women in our parliaments prior ro the rule changes in 1994 was just 14.5 per cent. At the same time, the percentage of Liberal women was just 13.9 per cent, so we were both doing very poorly. Here we are 20 years on, following Labor's affirmative action rules which Joan Kirner was such a champion of, with 43 per cent of women in Labor held seats compated with the Liberal Party's 23.2 per cent of women in Parliaments. These figures demonstrate what affirmative action rules can achieve.

Affirmative action is important and it does matter in the fight for gender equality in this place and in other places around the country. We would see no better example than the current Queensland cabinet, under the leadership of the first Australian woman to be elected from opposition as Premier in Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk. Her cabinet now has a historic eight women to seven men. That was probably unimaginable 20 years ago, but that is an example of how affirmative action is influencing gender equality in parliaments in Australia. In Joan's home state of Victoria we see a record number of nine women in Daniel Andrews's Labor cabinet; that is to be commended as well. Beyond Premiers, we have Joan to thank for our first Australia woman Prime Minister, of course. Her tireless advocacy, support and mentoring helped the advancement of Julia Gillard to our nation's highest post.

Joan was a mentor to those she met but also a coach for those who she did not always meet firsthand. Through her partnership with Moira Rayner, Joan provided some real-life assistance to aspiring women with the very practical book that she produced as a tool kit: the Women's Power Handbook. It sits to this day on the bookshelf in my office in Newcastle. I often reflect on the lessons I learnt through that book and pass it on to other women who are looking for guidance on their own journeys to parliament or, indeed, other fields of endeavour.

Finally, when we learnt of Joan's passing on Monday night this week, it was fitting that many of us were gathered for our regular meeting of the Labor caucus Status of Women Committee. It was wonderful that we could be together on that night as we heard the sad news, to reflect on Joan's life, what she meant to each of us as individuals and to Labor women across the nation. So many of us have benefited from the amazing contribution of Joan Kirner. She really was the most extraordinary agent of change, and for that we are deeply grateful. My generation of Labor women will remain indebted to Joan's vision and her tenacity and today we say thank you, Joan Kirner.

I send my condolences to Joan's husband, Ron and her three children, Michael, David and Kate and their families at this sad time.

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