Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to extend my condolences on the death of Joan Kirner. It is hard to believe she is no longer with us, but I am comforted that her close family and friends tell us she is no longer in pain. I was very sorry not to be able to attend Joan's funeral as I was attending estimates here in the parliament, but I know that Joan herself would have thought that was a far more important job than attending her funeral. I have been able to read many of the wonderful tributes to Joan that were made at the funeral.

I knew Joan through EMILY's List as a proud member of EMILY's list and a very early member. It is very hard to imagine EMILY's List without Joan, but Joan set EMILY's List on a very strong path. As we just heard from our leader, Senator Wong, many women in this place and indeed state parliaments have been beneficiaries of EMILY's List in Australia. Joan left us with a very proud legacy. We are still not as strong as we should be as women in Australian parliaments, but I cannot imagine where we would be today without EMILY's List. When Joan first brought EMILY's List to Australia we all wondered—or certainly I did—just what it would mean and how effective it would be. Nevertheless, we all signed up, because that is what Joan wanted us to do. Joan was a very generous woman, a very courageous woman, but she was not a woman you could say no to very easily. So, when we were asked to sign up to EMILY's List, that is what we all did, because to not do so would have incurred the wrath of Joan. But EMILY's List has well and truly established itself on the Left of Australian politics. There are many fine women, both past and present, who are here because of EMILY's List, and it continues to make a massive contribution. But we do have a long way to go, and EMILY's List and affirmative action mean that the Australian Labor Party is able to produce very fine female politicians.

In the Australian Labor Party it is quite difficult to become a Labor hero. We set the bar very high. Gough Whitlam was a Labor hero we lost earlier this year, and Joan is easily a Labor hero. Despite there being a high bar, Joan well and truly met that bar, as an absolute champion. I know when she became the Premier of Victoria what a brave and courageous role she played. She absolutely led from the front. She did not skirt or try to get around any issues at all; she took them head-on and she led in the most courageous way—and, again, showed us as younger women what it means to be a courageous female leader. And when she stepped down from that parliament, after so many years as a community activist and a Labor politician, she could have been given the grace of retiring, but she did not. She was as feisty in retirement, in EMILY's List and other causes, just as she had been right through her working life and her community activity. She will be missed; there is no doubt about that. But she has set us on a strong course, and those of us who are proud EMILY's List members are there as beneficiaries of Joan Kirner.

Debate adjourned.