Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to offer the Greens' condolences to the friends and family of Dame Margaret Guilfoyle. Though, of course, we're on opposite sides of the chamber on many issues, Dame Margaret's passion and commitment to promoting women in leadership roles undeniably blazed a trail for all those who have followed and who are to come.

An Irish immigrant raised by a single mother after her father's death, Dame Margaret often said that her experiences confirmed—as was cited before by Senator Birmingham—that at any time a woman must be capable of independence. She worked tirelessly to ensure that she achieved this and made space for other women to do the same.

When she joined the Liberal Party she was mentored and supported by other female members and encouraged to seek leadership roles. She then spent her career paying that forward. In the time she served in the Senate the number of female senators rose from two to 19. I'm delighted that women now represent more than half the senators in this place. Enid Lyons was the first woman appointed to cabinet. Annabelle Rankin was the first woman to be given a ministerial portfolio.

When she was appointed as Minister for Education in 1975 Dame Margaret became the first woman to build on those achievements and to be appointed to a cabinet-level ministerial portfolio. She went on to serve as Minister for Social Security and Minister for Finance. In her social security role she gained a reputation for resisting calls for funding and spending cuts in the portfolio, recognising the importance of providing support to vulnerable members of the community. She oversaw a major reform of the national child support scheme and led the new office of child care within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Working with the director of that office, the inimitable Marie Coleman, who has also been referenced already today, Dame Margaret oversaw a significant expansion of federal government support for the childcare sector and funding for preschool, day care, after-school care and youth refuges. Throughout her career Dame Margaret fought against efforts to pigeonhole her by her gender and to limit her interest to family issues and so called 'women's issues'. Instead she continued to fight on the wide range of social issues that impact all women: access to education and social services, financial security, human rights, mental health and discrimination.

Consistent with her commitment to education and development, after leaving the Senate Dame Margaret went on to get a Bachelor of Laws and work in private practice. She continued her commitment to public life as a member of the National Inquiry into the Human Rights of People with Mental Illness, the Mental Health Research Institute, the infertility treatment authority and various not-for-profit boards.

She continued her mentoring and advocacy for women, working with Joan Kirner on a campaign to secure more nominations for women in Australia's honours system. This is a project that continues today, but much ground has been made.

Like those who came before her, Dame Margaret's career forged a path that, little by little, made it easier for more and more women to see people like them in leadership roles, to know the importance of representation and to put themselves forward. There is still so much to be done to achieve diversity in this place and to get a parliament that actually looks like our community, but we here at the Greens thank Dame Margaret for the doors that she opened along that path. A woman's place is indeed in the House, the Senate and the cabinet. Vale, Dame Margaret Gilfoyle.