Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the opposition to express our condolences following the passing of the Hon. Dame Margaret Georgina Constance Guilfoyle AC, DBE, former senator and minister, at the age of 94. I begin by expressing our sympathy to her family and friends, in joining with the government in this condolence motion.

Dame Margaret Guilfoyle was one of the highest-ranking women to have served in an Australian government. She entered, and succeeded in, politics at a time when there were few other women in parliament, let alone around the cabinet table. Participating not at the periphery but at the centre, she would be a minister for the life of the Fraser government, briefly in education before moving to social security and then to finance. She was the first woman to be Australia's finance minister. It took 27 years, and five governments, before my appointment brought the next. Dame Margaret earned a reputation as a highly capable administrator, setting a standard that was a benchmark for those who followed.

Born in Belfast in 1926, Dame Margaret emigrated to Australia with her family two years later. She was not a child of privilege. Settling in Melbourne, the death of her father when she was 10 was a lesson in resilience. Her mother had to bring up three children without the support of extended family, which for Dame Margaret became a formative experience and perhaps led her to recognise the value of education and career for women. Leaving a state school at 15, she combined work and study and ultimately qualified as an accountant and chartered secretary. Of course, at this time, post World War II, there was a shortage in this profession, which helped her to establish a career where women would otherwise have faced an even greater number of barriers. Later she would point to her capacity to manage a career and family as evidence of her ability to manage a family and political life.

Along with her husband, Stanley Guilfoyle, with whom she had three children, she joined her local branch of the Liberal Party and was active in the women's section of the party in particular. She benefited from the mentoring of several feisty senior women, who themselves had played a significant role in the formation of the party and who had a reputation for not suffering any nonsense from their brethren. She would be preselected to replace one of them, Dame Ivy Wedgwood—to whom my colleague Senator Birmingham referred—the first woman to represent Victoria in the Senate, from a field of 20 candidates.

After her election, and taking office in this place in July 1971, Dame Margaret quickly established herself by pursuing committee opportunities that aligned with her professional expertise. She entered a chamber in which there was only one other woman, Dame Nancy Buttfield from South Australia. She recognised her role in following the legacy of her predecessors from Victoria but also, as only the seventh woman to be a senator, in being what she described as a 'voice for the women of Australia'. Her first speech demonstrated the breadth of her interests. She addressed economic concerns but, perhaps more significantly, articulated the changing nature of people's attitudes towards what was important in their lives. Noting that Australians had enjoyed great material prosperity in the postwar years, she observed that the nation was changing. She sensed more people were recognising that material progress alone did not necessarily lead to contentment, and there was a restlessness and questioning of previously important standards and values. She argued selflessness needed to be brought to the preservation of our natural resources and that the arts were a necessary outlet for developing imagination, sensibility, perception and intelligence, and an enrichment for all the people.

In 1974 she entered the shadow ministry as spokesperson on the media. When Malcolm Fraser replaced Billy Snedden as Leader of the Opposition, in March 1975, he appointed her as shadow minister for education, in relation to which she had responsibility for preparing the opposition's policy in what was a politically tumultuous time. As Senator Birmingham outlined, it was an effort that earned attention and respect. After the dismissal of the Whitlam government, Mr Fraser appointed Dame Margaret education minister in his caretaker government. She would be the third woman appointed to the ministry in Australia's history but the first to be given a substantive portfolio in cabinet, running a government department. Her stay was brief. After the election that followed, she would shift to social security. After a six-month hiatus from cabinet, she returned in June 1976 and remained for the next 6½ years.

As Minister for Social Security she had to balance the desire of the conservative government to contain expenditure with the necessity of ensuring the welfare system was administered with humanity. Often some of her harshest critics—as is often the case—were her own colleagues. One of the key initiatives she oversaw was the conversion of the family allowance from a tax rebate to a cash payment directly to mothers. And in conjunction with Marie Coleman, who to this day, in her late 80s, remains a powerful and consistent advocate for Australian women, she oversaw the establishment of the foundations of the modern childcare sector, with an increased Commonwealth role in day and out-of-school-hours care.

When Marie was asked to offer some contribution to this speech, among the many superlatives she used was the word 'doughty', which means steadfastly courageous and resolute. It's a word that's gone out of circulation, perhaps because it describes qualities that may have become a little too rare. Marie recalls Dame Margaret's emphatic pronouncements that social security is not a cost but a way to support the most vulnerable amongst us, to offer civilised support for those who need it. It was an outlook that Dame Margaret practised in life as well as in policy. She would go out of her way to give people the dignity of being heard. Even if she could not offer a solution to someone's problem, she would offer what she could, even if it was only her empathy.

Perhaps Dame Margaret's greatest contribution opportunity would come in 1980, when Mr Fraser appointed her as Minister for Finance and she became, in her own words, 'chief accountant for the country'. The Age heralded this appointment as an excellent choice, stating that Dame Margaret was not merely of unquestionable competence but also someone who had shown a determination to see that budget cutbacks were not made at the expense of the poor. Finance put her at the heart of government decision-making for the next three years, and she would be the Fraser government's gatekeeper, maintaining curbs on expenditure in line with cabinet policy and imposing fiscal discipline on ministers and departments. It is, at its core, an often thankless portfolio—as Senator Birmingham is no doubt discovering!—but it is one that is essential, and it seemed ideal for someone who was variously described as meticulous, confident and unflappable. It also put a woman at the heart of economic decision-making.

Dame Margaret recognised the role she played as one of the first few women to enter this place and then to hold significant office. But to her the more significant matter was that she would ensure that it was more acceptable in the future for positions of responsibility to be handled by women. In her valedictory remarks several years later she said:

It was said that I was the first to hold a Cabinet post and administer a department—that might be true—but it had to be very important that I was not the last.

So, as the second—and to date the only other—female finance minister of Australia, I recognise not only the honour of following in the footsteps of women like Dame Margaret and her contemporary, the late Senator Susan Ryan, but also the importance of helping others carry that legacy on. And I hope we're not going to wait too long for Senator Gallagher to become the third woman to serve as Australia's finance minister.

Returning to opposition after the defeat of the Fraser government may have been the end of Dame Margaret's ministerial career, but she took seriously her role as a legislator and remarked, upon returning to the backbench, that her object now was to ensure good governance. When she retired in 1987, the then Labor leader in the Senate, John Button, spoke generously about his departing Victorian colleague, describing her as someone who brought 'great skills and intellectual stringency to her role as a minister and dignity and good humour to this chamber'. In fact, Dame Margaret had also been a source of artistic inspiration for Senator Button, with his 1978 work Still Life in the Senate, of which she was the centrepiece, wining third prize in a competition organised by the Warrnambool Art Gallery. In this masterpiece, subtitled The view from the opposition benches, Senator Button placed a photograph of a smiling Dame Margaret surrounded by her Liberal Party colleagues, who were each hand-drawn as a particular type of animal. Acknowledging in a somewhat understated way that he had an uncharitable view of most Fraser government senators, he said that Margaret Guilfoyle was always the most pleasant and answered opposition questions better than most ministers—which, from John Button, was fine praise!

After parliament, Dame Margaret took on a number of causes. She showed particular dedication to supporting mental health research, notably as a commissioner in the national inquiry into human rights and mental illness, announced by Human Rights Commissioner Brian Burdekin in 1990, and deputy chair of the Mental Health Research Institute. She was also a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council and a director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation. The latter was entirely appropriate, given that in her first speech Dame Margaret had spoken presciently of the importance of fostering the creation of films with a national identity. She also—and I'm sure others might speak about this more—led efforts within the Liberal Party to increase female representation within its ranks.

Speaking at a conference to mark 100 years of women's suffrage in that wonderful state of South Australia in 1994, she emphasised that it was not sufficient to merely increase the number of women in parliament, but that women must be in the cabinet. Remarking that our system is one of cabinet government, she said, 'Unless there are women in cabinet, they won't have the effect on policy development and implementation that they would if they were part of a cabinet structure in which the decisions and policy directions are made.' In light of this, it is still so disappointing that, when this government first came to office, there was only one woman in the cabinet.

My genuine hope is that the conservative side of politics could find it within themselves to honour her legacy, of which they should be so very proud, by supporting more women to be here and promoting more women into senior roles. In their tribute in the Herald Sun, Dame Margaret Guilfoyle's family described her as someone who will be remembered for her humour, spark and intellect. They went on to say, 'She achieved much in her public life, based on her abiding beliefs in equity and fairness.'

We've farewelled some women who have led the way for this parliament and this nation this year, and Dame Margaret led the way for a generation of women, particularly those in conservative politics. She was an icon for the Liberal Party. We, on this side, particularly the women on this side of the parliament, express our recognition for the role she played in changing this place. We, again, express our condolences at her passing, and we convey our sympathies to her family and friends.