Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to 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.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to endorse the comments that have been made by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. She, along with most women on our side of politics, benefited from having a close relationship with Joan Kirner. She was an incredible woman. She was a woman who lived her life according to her beliefs and she achieved a lot in her political life, being elected to parliament in 1982, to cabinet in 1985, and to Premier. She was only the second female premier in Australia and the first in Victoria, and she was Premier until 1992 even though, when she became Premier, she knew it was a poisoned chalice.

What I really want to talk about is the Joan Kirner I knew, the Joan Kirner who provided support to a woman who was looking at entering politics. As the member for Sydney said, there was that phone call at the right moment when you were up to your eyeballs in campaigning and you knew that someone was there supporting you, and an organisation was there supporting you.

It was Joan Kirner who was behind EMILY's List becoming the force that it is in Australia, a force that supported progressive women and pro-choice women, and it supported women in winnable seats. That was something that was not a long tradition in the Labor Party, and it was something that Joan Kirner fought for and it was something that she actually achieved. There are now women in winnable seats, not only in the federal parliament but also in the state parliaments. Joan Kirner really is the person who helped that come about. She was a mentor; she was a role model. She was a special person who, as I said, lived her life according to her beliefs. She was a person who worked to remove the barriers that were quite artificial—barriers that were sometimes very subtle and were not noticed by everybody.

I feel privileged to have known Joan Kirner. She was such a down-to-earth person—a person who could really feel the need that you had at a particular time. I thank her for the support she gave me. She will be missed by many women on our side of politics.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the many people in the eastern suburbs who knew Joan for many years and who appreciated the work she did in education in our electorate, I offer our condolences to Joan's family, particularly her husband Ron, who is a quiet individual in the background but always there, her children Michael, Kate and David and her many grandchildren and also her friends.

Joan and I did not always see eye to eye. I am not a member of EMILY's List. I was often across the room from her at conference, on the other side of the divide. I remember at my first state conference that there was a fierce battle going on about the sale of the State Bank. There were many arguments going on. Joan and I never had the sort of affinity that other people talk about in that bubble. My experience of Joan was of an incredible, remarkable woman, one you could almost hear roar—well, perhaps singing badly. But she always sang with great mirth, generosity, insight and self-deprecation.

It was a phone call out of the blue that really shocked my socks off one day. It was one of those moments when you think, 'How did this woman get my phone number?' I had written a piece in the paper about being pregnant during the election and that I had chosen not to divulge this secret because I did not think it was anybody's business. Joan very insightfully rang and said, 'Anna, you've opened up a can of worms.'—I will not repeat quite what she said to me—'I don't think you realise what you've done. Turn off the phone. Go inside and enjoy some time with your new baby.' It was incredible. It really just hit the spot. I then had many, many more of these wonderful little conversations, little vignettes, little emails sent. As I said, I was not part of the EMILY's List cohort. I respect, admire and support it financially, but I am not a member for many reasons.

Other people who have spoken about Joan have also spoken about the influence of their mothers. My mother is also a 'Joan'. She comes from the same vintage but she probably had some difficulties with Joan Kirner, particularly around what people will know as 'dogs'—my mother coming from a very Catholic teaching background. Nevertheless, she had huge admiration for what Joan Kirner did. The impact that Joan had on the eastern suburbs of Melbourne in terms of education remains there to this day.

Joan also had an amazing working relationship with many people in my electorate, and I spoke to some of them today, particularly with Jan Kennedy, whose husband, Cyril, was in parliament with Joan. Jan said that when Joan joined the Victorian parliamentary Labor caucus, the status of the women's policy committee, the first such Labor policy committee of its kind in Australia, had only just begun talking about quotas for women in parliament. Joan championed affirmative action when she entered parliament. It was wonderful for women to have a such a strong advocate in our parliament. Joan also went on to establish EMILY's List, which is a fantastic force for women in the ALP.

I also spoke with Margret Ray, the long-serving member for Box Hill, who was also in parliament with Joan. Margaret, who is a great stalwart of the eastern suburbs, said:

… the most important reform of the Kirner government was the closure of the notorious Caloola in Sunbury. Caloola was a very large mental institution housing 800 people who were all successfully relocated and rehoused by Joan Kirner and then Minister Kay Setches.

Kay and Denis Setches played a big part in Joan's life and were very influential at this time in the eastern suburbs. Margaret continued:

For me this was the big social reform of Joan Kirner. It was an historic moment and was hailed internationally at the time as a remarkable closure. Residents were taken out of a notorious and unsuitable institution and placed into more appropriate community housing and aged care facilities.

Margaret also said:

You don't sum up governments simply by the economics and in the face of the significant controversies of the time. Joan achieved a remarkable outcome. She knew she had a short time and she invested enormous resources to achieve that goal very quickly.

While Bob Hawke usually also talks the credit, it was Joan Kirner who started Landcare in Victoria with the cooperation of the Nationals MP and it would not exist today without her.

I think that is it: it is the reach of Joan Kirner. It is not just one thing she is known for. She was active, she was involved but she never finished politics. I think Jenny Beacham summed it up beautifully at the service for Joan when she said that Joan would not want anyone to think she had just become premier because the boys had handed it to her. She wanted that role. She wanted to use it to the advantage of the community, and she did.

Joan Kirner famously stated: 'There is no such thing as being non-political. Just by making a decision to stay out of politics you are making a decision to allow others to shape politics and exert power over you. And if you are alienated from the current political system, then just by staying out of it you do nothing to change it; you simply entrench it.' That was Joan's attitude. You had to be there. You had to show up. You had to be involved.

When her parliamentary career was over—an extensive time in parliament—we thought about those two years as Premier, but there was her time as education minister, and we thought particularly about her ability for inclusion. In my electorate many schools see children with all disabilities and all abilities integrated into mainstream education. If you go to any school, they will say it is a 'Joan Kirner legacy'. Words from an article on the glass ceiling sum up Joan Kirner beautifully. The article says:

"Seize the moment" Joan Kirner, one of Australia's first woman Premiers, urged the crowd of young people in an Adelaide pub during a break in her commitments at the International Conference "Women Power and Politics" in October 1994.

"Participate in shaping our nation as we have not done before."

Then she launched into a few bars of a rock and roll number, revisiting her television appearance of a few months earlier. "Who knows - if I'd done that gig before the election I might still have been Premier," she quipped. "At least I was seen to be human. Politics has got to be fun or you will go bananas," she told the crowd.

But Joan Kirner is serious about the need for more women in powerful positions in business and government. "It's all very well being in the sphere of influence—but I can tell you it is much better being in the sphere of power," she said.

At the conference earlier in the day, Joan Kirner said: "If women seize the moment in the 1990s—

Sadly, so much has not changed, and has—

we can shape a more inclusive society. We need to:

•advance the process of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australian women.

•remake our constitution to include all Australians—our rights and our responsibilities.

•shape society's institutions so that they are less alienating and more collaborative.

•restore and protect our environment.

•and we need to access and control the information technology revolution so that it is used to inform and unite not divide and destroy.

So said Joan Kirner.

She did all these things. She united. She did not divide. She embraced. She even embraced Jeff Kennett, the man who beat her, and welcomed his legacy and phenomenal work post parliament in the beyondblue space. She was one of those phenomenal people. Most of us, when hearing of her passing, did draw breath and think—'legend' may be a big word but she was someone who we just thought would be there, always. She was one of those people you expected would go on and on.

Her many thoughtful little messages, her telling me to 'keep on going', to be the voice in caucus even if I was against everybody else, were greatly appreciated. Vale Joan Kirner. Thank you for all you did for the Labor Party, for the state of Victoria but, all through, for Australia.