Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Joan Kirner was passionate, tireless, generous and warm. And we all know that she loved rock and roll. She was Premier of Victoria for two years—the first female Premier of Victoria.

Every time a woman is the first of something, she shows that it can be done. She shows other women that it is possible. She opens the door a little wider for them, encourages them to dream a little larger and aim a little higher. But, in her nearly four decades as a Labor feminist, Joan Kirner did not so much open doors for women as kick them off their hinges. She did not crack the glass ceiling for Labor women; she took a sledgehammer to it. Or perhaps I would say that she handed out sledgehammers, because Joan had a superb appreciation for the benefits of organisation, mentoring and encouragement. She knew that it was not important just for her to break through that glass ceiling but to organise for others to do so also.

I am talking, of course, about the tremendous enterprise that she devoted so much of her time and energy to after she left Parliament: building a Labor Party that looks like the community that it represents, which means, for starters, having about half of our parliaments made up of women as well as men. Of course, Joan Kirner was one of the founders and driving forces behind EMILY'S List.

Joan understood that, as many studies have shown, people tend to, whether consciously or unconsciously, mentor and support people that remind them of themselves. That meant that institutions that have always been dominated by men would continue to always be dominated by men, if women did not find opportunities to develop, experience, build networks and make allies. EMILY'S List was a conscious effort to rebalance that, to make sure that Labor picked the best candidate.

Although many of those on the other side of the chamber have argued in the past that removing the barriers to women's participation in politics and decision making is incompatible with meritocracy, I would argue—and I am sure Joan would have made this case very eloquently—that in fact it is the only thing that is compatible with meritocracy. It is impossible to imagine, or convince ourselves, that half the talent, half the intellect, half the ability for hard work and half the capacity of our community is not held by the women of Australia. We ask ourselves then: what have been the structural barriers that have meant that women have been less represented in higher decision-making positions? When you understand that it is not a lack of talent, a lack of merit, that has been the cause of the underrepresentation of women, you see that it is important not just to accept those structural impediments but to work together to change them.

Joan believed that no organisation where there were structural barriers to women's equal participation could truly be a meritocracy. That is why, although it surprised a lot of people at the time, she actually backed a bloke, Steve Bracks, to succeed her in her seat. Plainly, she picked the right person, because he went on to be Premier and was elected three times. She put an enormous effort into EMILY's List because she believed so strongly in the EMILY's List motto: when women support women, women win. She really changed the game for many Labor women. I am not certain that we would be looking at two state Labor governments where their frontbenches are made up of equal numbers of men and women if it were not for the culture change that Joan and many who helped and supported her brought about within the Labor Party.

Joan was an incredibly active and supportive friend and mentor to many women—me included—not just in the big ways, the big structural changes like the campaign for affirmative action within the Labor Party or like EMILY's List, but also in a million very small ways. You can talk to many Labor women who will tell you about a well-timed phone call or a well-timed SMS to give you a little bit of encouragement along the way.

Joan Kirner came from a background of activism in her local community, as the mother of a child at a local primary school who was not satisfied with the educational offering for her child and as a woman who faced professional barriers herself after her marriage. She took those life experiences and turned them into a career of political activism that included being an education minister and finally a premier, and right through her life was a political activist and a friend and mentor to many of us.

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