Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's an enormous privilege to be able to speak on this motion honouring the memory of Dame Margaret Guilfoyle. Like many members in this chamber, I knew Dame Margaret—though not well. In my many years as, shall we say, a possibly even more precocious youngish Liberal, I engaged with her regularly around the Kew area, where I was then working as an electoral officer—a very long time ago—and she would periodically come to events. As people will often remark, she was member of the Camberwell South branch, which she joined with her husband Stan Guilfoyle. So I saw her there with Stan and of course at various events, including the Liberal Party State Council.

She always stood as a firm, principled and committed warrior for the Liberal cause. I say that because that, to me, is how I see her. A lot of people remark on the fact that she was the first woman to sit in cabinet with a portfolio and that she was the first woman to hold an economic portfolio. These are matters that are true, but that doesn't change the fact that I have always seen her as a stoic, values-driven politician who lived the meaning of the Menzian ideal of liberalism around a forward-looking, modern liberalism reflective of the times and driving the progress of our great country.

Shortly after her death, I read a copy of her biography, written by my good friend and former upper house member in the Victorian parliament, Margaret Fitzherbert, who wrote about Margaret Guilfoyle:

Margaret Guilfoyle would have been an unusual candidate for any political party when she stood for election to the Senate in 1970. Decades before such arrangements became commonplace, flexible working hours allowed Guilfoyle to combine her career as an accountant with raising her three children. Her qualifications and experience later boosted Guilfoyle’s chances of obtaining a seat in Parliament, and gave her skills that equipped her to enter the Fraser ministry and eventually Cabinet, while her status as a working mother proved an irresistible angle for journalists throughout her political career

People might be distracted by those facts, but the reality is that it was her liberalism that motivated her ideals. In fact, I understand that shortly after her death a journalist contacted Stan and asked, 'How, in a couple of points, would you define Dame Margaret's political ideals?' And it was 'a commitment to free enterprise'. Of course, many of us in this chamber are motivated by high ideals as the basis of political service, but what she always had was a connection back to the practical reality of politics and the implementation of ideas.

I was reviewing her first speech in the lead-up to today, where it's quite clear how much she was anchored in the practical realities of realising the ambitions of this country. Her first speech included a reference to the considerable uncertainty about farm product in the forthcoming year and, of course, a very studious assessment of the Commonwealth budget, including the quote:

The total Commonwealth receipts are estimated to be of the order of $8,822m, an increase of 9.9 per cent.

And then going into various different sums assessing the accounts of the nation. So, of course, you can very clearly see the accountant in her.

It was that anchoring in those liberal ideals that she continued to pursue in her life, including in particular her commitment to environmental stewardship. From her first speech:

When speaking of environmental measures we must speak of individual responsibilities. If we are talking about environmental measures we must accept that just as the first syllable of management is man, so is it man's individual responsibility to ensure that a personal unselfishness and, perhaps, selflessness is brought to bear in the interests of the preservation of our natural resources.

She understood that liberalism was about our commitment to not just economic and social progress—though that is critical—but also environmental stewardship. You can see this particular commitment to environmental stewardship throughout her entire political career.

But I don't think we want to underplay her commitment to social progress either. She spoke extensively about the importance of social mobility as part of her commitment of realising liberalism. People have made reflections about her fights against various different budget measures and cuts, where she saw the importance of welfare being to mobilise people to be able to live out the fullness of their life, to be able to stand on their own two feet and to be part of the contribution to be successful.

In her valedictory speech, she reflected on the fact that her career was often defined by her gender. But it isn't just, of course, based on the world that you inherit; it is also based on the world that you leave behind. In her valedictory speech she acknowledged:

I am conscious of the fact that when I came here I was one of two women in the Parliament, but now there are many more women in this place and the other House. To me that has the significance that it will be more acceptable in the future to understand that ultimate responsibility is able to be handled by women. It was said that I was the first to hold a Cabinet post and administer a department-that might be true-but it had to be very important that I was not the last. I have watched with great interest the way in which Senator Ryan—

talking about the former late senator Susan Ryan, who I served with at the Human Rights Commission—

has handled her difficult and interesting portfolio, and I will be even more interested in watching the women who follow in the future to see that their contribution is recognised and is not in any way segregated from the overall contribution that must be made by people handling extensive portfolio work.

So it wasn't just about the contribution she made while she was is in this place, but the opportunities—whether it was through the promotion of environmental stewardship, social mobility or economic prosperity as the foundation for her liberalism—and what she left behind for future generations that will be her lasting legacy. May she rest in peace.

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