Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

For the second time in as many months we find ourselves rising to pay tribute to a trailblazer for women in parliament and women in government—firstly the Hon. Susan Ryan and now Dame Margaret Guilfoyle. There have been too many of these speeches this year.

I well recall the day last year when, for the first time in our nation's history, the Senate achieved equal numbers of men and women with the arrival then of Senator Sarah Henderson. This was an important milestone for our parliament and for the country. We reached it in large part because women like Dame Margaret paved a path for many of the rest of us to follow. When, in 1970, Dame Margaret was elected to this place, she was only the seventh woman to serve in the Australian Senate. In her long career here, as colleagues have said so well this afternoon—and I acknowledge those speeches with gratitude—she achieved a lot of firsts. She was the first woman senator in cabinet. She was the first woman in cabinet with a ministerial portfolio. She was the first woman ever to hold a major economic portfolio. Not only did she do all of this, but she did it with such extraordinary efficiency that she left everyone in awe. And she won admiration from all sides, as we have seen here this afternoon.

But it didn't come easily. In fact, at first she was written off as 'a mother with political ambitions'. When she was appointed to what was known as the joint prices committee, Melbourne's Herald newspaper described her as 'a housewife with a big say on prices'. The Sydney Morning Herald, upon her appointment as shadow minister for education, described her as 'a mother with political ambitions'. When her talent became apparent she attracted other descriptions like 'the Iron Butterfly' and comparisons to 'the Iron Lady' of British politics, also a Margaret. But she never welcomed the title or the comparison. She said the image of a hard woman bothered her. She didn't believe a woman should have to sacrifice her compassion and her empathy to succeed.

At the same time, she was not interested in being typecast as a woman with 'a woman's portfolio'. She clearly had her eyes on the bigger goal of leading and reforming social security. She was appointed to that role just before Christmas 1975 and, over the next five years, used it as a platform to pursue her belief in women's equal participation. She said at the time:

Equal participation of women in the Parliament, in the whole of community life, can only lead us to a better understanding of humanity and to the fulfilment of the aspirations that we would have for a civilised society.

She started programs, as we have heard this afternoon, that made life better for women in Australia. By her own estimate, 83 per cent of her department's payments were made directly to women, including widow's pensions, age pensions, family allowances and disability support payments. She also reformed the national child endowment scheme and presided over a major expansion of government support for preschool, child care and after-school care. When the landmark maternity leave bill was debated, she had argued for the extension of maternity leave to all women, not just Commonwealth employees. And no-one knew better how important it was for women to have choice when it came to how they interpreted their role as a parent. Indeed, without pushing for flexibility in work-life balance in her own career, she would never have been in a position to create it for others.

In 1980, Dame Margaret was made the Minister for Finance, becoming what she called 'the chief accountant for the country'. She always believed governments needed to govern for everyone. In her more than two years as finance minister, she came to see that it was through the Finance portfolio that a government's accountability on every issue, from the economy to national security, rested. To paraphrase, she said, 'It was a very interesting time for me as finance minister, having that overall look at the accountability of government, to sit on every cabinet committee dealing with economic matters and with the security of the country, because it is the accountability of government, through the Department of Finance, that is the responsibility of that minister.' I think it is very nice that Senator Wong is here this afternoon to make her contribution as Australia's second female finance minister.

Upon her retirement, Dame Margaret reflected that her time in parliament had brought out the best in her, and she did it at a time when, frankly, few believed a woman, especially a woman with children, could or even should serve in this place. People often asked Dame Margaret what it was like being the first woman in her role. She always replied that it wasn't being the first that mattered; it was more important that she was not the last. And I know Senator Jane Hume would have reinforced that this afternoon, were she here. She mentioned that in her social media post last week in acknowledging Dame Margaret's leadership, particularly in Victoria. Seeing how far female representation came over her lifetime was something in which she also took great joy. She once said, 'Since my time as a minister, I have seen women who have been Commonwealth ministers, premiers and chief ministers.' And we know, indeed, we can add to that Governor-General and Prime Minister. As a senator, and as Minister for Women, I feel immense gratitude for the trailblazing path laid down by Senator Guilfoyle. All of us owe her a great debt. She was a woman who made it to the top and then worked to lift us all.

I met Dame Margaret from time to time, over the years, through the Liberal Party, and through politics, and I was always struck by her quiet grace, her fierce intellect, her genuine interest in what those of us who had followed in her footsteps as senators in the parliament were doing here, and her fierce continuation of support for the Liberal Party and the participation of women in the Liberal Party. In fact, just last week, Chris McDiven, former federal president of the Liberal Party and the initiator of the Liberal Women's Forum, of which Dame Margaret was the patron, described her to me as a wonderfully warm, kind and supportive person. That will be the memory of many. I believe she'll be remembered not only as the first woman to do so many of the things that she did but as one of the finest, most accomplished, diligent ministers in our nation's history.

To her husband, Stan, to her children, to her family, we offer our heartfelt condolences. Vale, Dame Margaret Guilfoyle.