Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

Susan Ryan was a force for good, a go-getter, a person who broke down barriers, with an infectious passion for progress. Susan made life better for so many Australians, particularly women. She will be sadly missed. Susan, just like me, grew up in Maroubra, and she never lost her love of the surf, the ocean and the rolling waves, particularly of her home beach of Maroubra. It's no coincidence that the last thing that Susan did on this planet was go for a swim in the ocean.

Susan attended Brigidine College at Randwick, the same school that my wife went to and the same school that my eldest daughter will begin high school at next year. After travelling the world with her diplomat husband, Susan settled down in Canberra in the early 1970s. Her passion, her intellect and her talent were quickly recognised, and she was elected to the ACT House of Assembly. In 1975 she ran for one of the first two Senate spots for the ACT. She ran under the slogan 'A woman's place is in the Senate,' and she was spot-on. When she got to the Senate, she made sure that she delivered on her campaign slogan, setting quickly about reforming outdated laws and ensuring equality for women in our country.

In 1983, on the election of the Hawke Labor government, Susan was appointed as the Minister for Education and Youth Affairs and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women. It was in that latter portfolio where she really made a difference and quickly set about changing Australian society and ensuring greater equality and fairness and the removal of discrimination against women. She set about breaking down some of those discriminatory mores that existed in our society at the time. She established the Sex Discrimination Act, the equal employment opportunity for women principles and the Public Sector Reform Act. These legal reforms introduced long-overdue changes to Australia that were, at the time, opposed by some in our society but ensured that Australia moved in line with international conventions that we were signatory to around the rights of women. Those reforms ensured that it became illegal for a woman to be sacked from her job simply for falling pregnant. They made it illegal for women to be discriminated against in the workplace. They made sexual harassment in the workplace unlawful and ensured extra funding and support for working women through child care.

When Susan introduced these reforms, of course there was the typical opposition from business groups and from family groups and, indeed, from some within her own party, the Labor Party, and certainly from many in the coalition, on the conservative side of politics, at the time. These were predictable arguments—that the reforms would destroy business and that they would destroy the nature of the family unit and Australian society. Susan clinically and quickly dismissed all of those arguments and pointed out the benefits that would flow to Australia for women, for our society and for our economy from these reforms. And, indeed, she has been proven right. For my generation, when we look back it's almost unthinkable that that's how we existed at that time and that anyone could oppose a reform that ensured that a woman couldn't be sacked from her job for falling pregnant. Susan fought hard and she won those battles and she gave those rights to women, and our country is better for her tenacity and for her powerful advocacy. As the father of four daughters, I sincerely thank Susan for leading the way and breaking down those barriers and ensuring that my daughters, and thousands of other women throughout the country, can live with dignity and respect in Australia.

After parliament, Susan never lost her passion for progress and equality, and she became the pro vice-chancellor of the University of New South Wales in my electorate, in the community that she lived in, and she was the president of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees. We all know that she continued in the role of breaking down the barriers, in 2011 becoming the Age Discrimination Commissioner and in 2014 the Disability Discrimination Commissioner. She never stopped fighting for the rights of the marginalised. Susan was very proud of her Irish descent, and that descent made her a very proud and staunch Australian republican. She was at one stage the national director of the Australian Republic Movement. I often had great conversations with Susan about the importance of Australia recognising our independence and our identity and finally having one of our own as our head of state. It was great to see her speak last year at Old Parliament House on the 20th anniversary of the failed 1999 republic referendum and to see that she hadn't lost that passion for this important issue. Hopefully, one day we can get around to finally voting on becoming a republic and having one of our own as our head of state.

In conclusion, I thank Susan for her wonderful contribution to Australian life. Australia is a better community, a better country, because of the work that she undertook. She leaves a great legacy of equality and justice. And for that, we thank her. I offer my sincere commiserations to her partner, Rory, and her children.

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