Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

It is with sadness that I rise today to speak on this condolence motion. We are today marking the passing of a woman who served her state—our state of South Australia—with great distinction, a woman who was known as an outspoken advocate for other women, a woman who was an independent spirit. Jeannie was someone who was prepared to work with women across the political divide on issues affecting Australian women. It is a mark of the respect with which she is regarded that so many senators have spoken and will speak today. Perhaps it is even a greater legacy that so many women senators from all the political parties will express their views in this chamber today. She was held in great regard and was respected by so many of us across the political spectrum.

Others have spoken at greater length than I intend to on the detail of Jeannie Ferris’s career. I can only speak of my knowledge of Jeannie Ferris as a colleague. There were many things on which we did not agree. I can recall Senator Ferris heckling me during the industrial relations debates when Senator Abetz and I were going head to head. In fact, I can recall her heckling me on a number of occasions in various debates! Senator Ferris was a fighter, in the best sense of the word, and her fighting spirit was certainly called upon in her struggle with her own illness. Not many days before she died, I received a text message from her in which she said she hoped to be back for the budget session. Unfortunately, that was not be.

Although there were many things on which we did not agree, there were many things on which we did agree. Broadly, I suppose you could call those things women’s issues. I want to acknowledge and pay tribute to Jeannie’s work on issues that affect so many Australian women. She was a passionate advocate but, perhaps even more importantly, she was a strategic advocate. She was a woman whose sights were fixed on those things in which she believed and those things she believed were important to improving and advancing the rights and the health of Australian women and the services available to Australian women.

I come from a state which has a long tradition of strong women—women such as Catherine Helen Spence and Roma Mitchell. It is a state which has put into this chamber former Senator Amanda Vanstone and Senator Natasha Stott Despoja. I count Senator Jeannie Ferris amongst those strong South Australian women. Much that has been achieved in this country when it comes to the experience of women could not have been achieved but for the willingness of women across the parties to work together. If you look over Australia’s history at so many of the issues that have affected Australian women and so many of the advances for Australian women—things like equal pay, access to education, equivalent social security rights, access to health services and reproductive rights—you find that many of the advances that we have seen in these areas could have been achieved only because women from both sides of the political divide were advocating for change. I hope we remember this when we think of Senator Jeannie Ferris. I hope her legacy to women across the parties will be that we remember the importance of all of us taking responsibility for issues affecting women. I suspect that, for our lifetimes, it will still be one of the responsibilities which fall to women who are elected to this place.

I extend my sympathy to her sons, to the rest of her family and to her friends. I especially want to extend my sympathy to her staff, with whom I have dealt on many occasions. I know this has been a very difficult period for them. I also want to express my sympathy to other senators, particularly women senators in this place, many of whom have lost a friend and dear colleague.