Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to pay tribute to a strong woman trade unionist. Last month in South Australia, Joy Palmer, a good woman and a strong woman, lost her battle with breast cancer. I first met Joy Palmer in the 1980s. During that period there was massive restructuring in the Australian Public Service. Joy was then a national office bearer and state secretary of her union, the then Australia Public Service Association. This was the union that looked after fourth division members in the Australian Public Service, particularly women who worked in clerical assistant and keyboard areas.

During the 1980s, there was massive restructuring in the Australian Public Service, which led to an improved public sector that gave greater job opportunities and career opportunities to people from the fourth division, making a more streamlined and career focused public sector. Joy Palmer led that battle. During that battle, she was able to be a role model and an inspiration for many women in the public sector. That is what I like to remember about Joy. She made us feel that any job was able to be done by a woman and that we all had the opportunity to have training and development and to take a place in all debates and negotiations. These skills were her strength, and they also provided so much inspiration to so many people.

My union, the Community and Public Sector Union—which was formed out of the then Australian Public Service Association and my old union, the Administrative Clerical Officers Association—owed a lot to Joy Palmer. She took on the role of one of the first national presidents of that union after struggling for several years to engage members across the public sector and to sell the values and the effectiveness of a combined union. There was great opposition to that particular idea at the time. People felt that somehow we would lose our identity and that there would be a loss in forming an amalgamated association. Joy understood that a unified, strong public sector union would be the way of the future and also, most importantly, would give everyone an opportunity to have careers and to form a focus for themselves that would lead to a better functioning public sector with a role for all the members. She took that battle across Australia. I well remember going to public meetings across this country where, against some opposition, she was able to sell the attributes of this unified association and how it would better operate. She won that battle, as, indeed, she won many battles in her life.

Her own union career started in 1967 as a clerical assistant in the old Telecom. She almost immediately became a workplace representative for her union and also a member of the section committee. That began an association with workers that lasted for over 40 years. During that time, she actually held positions across a range of union associations not just within the public service but also within the South Australian trade union movement. Throughout that process, Joy consistently worked to ensure that members had better opportunities and were able to find their own place in the trade union movement and in the wider community. There were many battles in which Joy was a leader. One of the things she was able to do very early on in her area was to look at the role of permanent part-time work in the Australian Public Service. That was an issue that, up until then, had tended to be a women’s issue and had been pushed aside. Women’s issues were consistently not given the same value in debates as other workplace issues. This was not an argument that stood well with Joy Palmer. In fact, with a number of women across the movement, she was able to ensure that strong arguments could be put forward that would be effective in any negotiation. It was so much the better if those arguments were put forward by women.

The union, the CPSU, posted a webpage where people were able to put forward their memories of Joy and give messages of support and sympathy to her partner, Peter Christopher, and their son, Matt. There were a number of messages from men and women—but particularly women—who remembered the inspiration that Joy gave them to find their own place in the labour movement. I want to quote one of my friends, Kate Coleman, who was also the secretary of the union in South Australia. She said of Joy:

Her passion was irrepressible and it was easy to believe that with enough determination and hard work, anything is possible. Joy was a very special woman to very many people.

Louise Persse, who is the current CPSU National President, remembers many meetings where these discussions were held. I think this sums up the kind of inspiration that Joy gave to so many of us:

The presence of people like Joy in the early part of my union membership made it seem natural to me that women should take on leadership roles in the union—in my youth, I don’t think I realised what a pioneer she was.

Indeed, we now know that Joy Palmer was a real pioneer and gave such hope and inspiration to so many of us.

After Joy left the mainstream CPSU, she went on to work in a range of organisations supporting women in the community, but, most importantly, one of her real passions was the issue of superannuation and the establishment of equity in this area. Joy was particularly focused on women’s entitlements in this process. We know that over many years there has been a lack of opportunity for women to have solid access to superannuation entitlements. Joy acknowledged this. She worked very strongly to make sure that there was equal access to superannuation and, more importantly, that people understood their own entitlements. She worked tirelessly to make sure that people understood the way that superannuation operated and to train and encourage people to learn more about this great workplace condition and to demand equity of opportunity. When Joy died, in newspapers throughout South Australia there were various statements made. A couple of them were put in by the superannuation bodies for which she had worked. They stated just how much value she had given to making superannuation better understood and to entrenching the right to superannuation in workplace conditions.

Joy Palmer worked for over 40 years for workers. She ensured that there were practical outcomes for workers across all areas of the industry, but particularly where her heart was—in the Australian Public Service. I remember Joy working tirelessly in the area of repatriation hospitals. Repatriation hospitals were being sold in the 1990s. She ran many meetings across this country, working with the people who were caught up in the process of restructuring and sales and who were concerned and fearful about their future and worried about what was going to happen to them. Joy remained strong and resolute throughout the process and fought through negotiation to ensure that people were treated with respect.

One of the things that Joy was involved with was advocacy for the development of effective employment policies and programs in the APS. You would remember, Mr President, how important it was during the 1980s and early 1990s to ensure that there were effective planning processes put in place in workplaces. I remember that one of the issues on which she worked was that of sexual harassment in the workplace. Again, she made sure that there was effective training and education and that workers had genuine knowledge about their entitlements and that there was no worker who would be victimised by conditions in their workplace.

We need women like Joy Palmer in the trade union movement. We respect the work that she did and we miss her now that she has passed away. But memories of her will continue to provide the inspiration that will ensure that the kinds of sentiments that I have mentioned this evening will not be forgotten and that her leadership, through her various roles as state and national office bearer in the union and also her work in superannuation, will not be forgotten. Her legacy is that there are large numbers of women who now accept that there is no role that they cannot fulfil and that they have rights and responsibilities in their workplaces.

We miss you, Joy. We also want to pass to Peter Christopher and Matt our condolences and assure them that Joy’s memory will not be forgotten.