Judith Troeth (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death on 27 March 2008 of Ruth Nancy Coleman, a senator for Western Australia from 1974 to 1987.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep regret at the death, on 27 March 2008, of Ruth Nancy Coleman, former senator for Western Australia and places on record its appreciation of her long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to her family in their bereavement.

I had the pleasure of knowing Ruth Coleman, and growing up in the Western Australian Labor Party while she was a leading, and firebrand, light. She was a woman of great passion, great commitment, and great tenacity, and she took the view that no challenge was too much for her. She was a real inspiration for the participation of many women in the Labor Party, and in politics, and that continued throughout her career in the Senate.

She was born in the coalfield town of Collie in Western Australia on 27 September 1931 and, like so many working-class children of her generation, she left school at 14 and went to work in a variety of jobs before ending up in advertising and public relations. Before entering federal parliament Ruth’s political activism was focused on consumer affairs. She became very well known in the Western Australian community as a very strong advocate for the rights of consumers at a time when such activity was not commonplace.

Ruth became heavily involved as secretary of the Consumer Action Movement, and she was appointed by the Western Australian government as a foundation member of the Consumer Affairs Council of WA. She was also a member of the Retail Trades Advisory and Control Committee. Together with former senator Pat Giles, she brought a whole new aspect to the membership and participation of women in the Western Australian Labor Party.

Ruth was elected as a senator for Western Australia in 1973. She was then only the third woman ever to be elected to the Commonwealth parliament from Western Australia, and one of only four women in the Senate at that time. During those years, the male dominance of the parliament manifested itself in many ways, and Ruth was quick to come up against the male political establishment. She became known for challenging those establishment rules. When she was first elected, there were no bathrooms for women senators, and she started by waging a campaign for more female bathrooms on the Senate side of Parliament House. She insisted on using the male senators’ bathrooms until her demands were met.

Later that same year, Ruth joined in a protest by 30 members of the Women’s Electoral Lobby against the men-only bar of the Canberra Rex Hotel. They had originally been refused service, but a week later—after Ruth led another well-fought publicity campaign—the hotel relented and opened up the bar to women as well.

Ruth was also famous for the controversy she generated in 1975 when she tried to play for the parliamentary cricket XI. Ruth had volunteered to play on the parliamentary team in the annual politicians versus press gallery cricket match. To the great shame of the Democrats, the then team captain, the late Don Chipp—he might have still been in the Liberals then; that may explain it—refused to have her on his side, telling her that he could not accept the mind-bending prospect of crouching in the slips beside a woman.

Undeterred, the following year Ruth led her own mixed side against the press gallery, which had decided to place a ban on Chipp for male chauvinism. It is worth noting that, despite this incident, the two of them went on to become great friends. Ruth was that sort of character.

Ruth also took on the Taxation Office in 1978, when it refused to grant her deductions for childcare costs. Eventually the Supreme Court of Western Australia ruled in her favour, in what was hailed at the time as a victory for working mothers across Australia. Unfortunately, we are still having the same debates.

Beyond these stories, Ruth was a very active and effective senator during her 13 years in parliament. She fought against discrimination in all areas. She was passionate and outspoken on a range of issues, including consumer affairs, women’s rights, human rights, Indigenous affairs, world peace and disarmament, and she was particularly well known for her anti-uranium views. I know she was unhappy with my role in the ALP changing its policy in that regard last year.

During her time here, Ruth was the co-convenor of the Parliamentary Disarmament Group and was heavily involved in the Australian Parliamentary Group of Amnesty International. Ruth also served on a number of standing, select and joint parliamentary committees. These included the Senate Legislative and General Purpose Standing Committee on National Development and Ownership and Control of Australian Resources Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Ownership and Control, and the Senate Select Committee on Volatile Substance Fumes. She chaired the Senate Legislative and General Purpose Standing Committee on Industry and Trade and the Senate Legislative and General Purpose Standing Committee on Trade and Commerce. In her valedictory speech, Ruth told the story of her first Senate caucus meeting. Those present were discussing the various committees, and one of her colleagues suggested that she would be best suited to the Standing Committee on Health and Welfare because she was a woman. In response, Ruth made a point of registering her interest in the standing committee on industry and trade. It was typical of her tenacity and talent that she became not only a member of the committee but eventually the committee chair. You didn’t mess with Ruth! In addition she also served as Temporary Chair of Committees from March 1976 to June 1987.

Like all Western Australian politicians, Ruth worked hard at trying to balance her work and family life, given the demands of travel, and no doubt her exhausting workload contributed to the cerebral haemorrhage she suffered in 1984. It was a terrible thing, but she displayed her trademark courage and determination to overcome that event. She returned to the Senate in 1986 but stepped down just before the 1987 federal election. In fact, I was due to replace her at that time but we had a double dissolution and I got done by the Nuclear Disarmament Party—which was a good thing for me! I had some dealings with her when I was seeking to succeed her and she really put up an enormous fight to contribute to politics and community activism despite the very severe health issue she suffered from, which was very debilitating. As I said, she showed great bravery in dealing with that and great purpose of mind.

Ruth Coleman was a pioneering woman in the Senate and did much to change public perceptions of the role of women in politics. It is a testament to the battles she fought and won that at the time of her retirement in 1987 the number of women in parliament had increased to 25, with 17 of them in the Senate. Of course that number has continued to grow since then. Ruth was known as a crusader for many worthy causes, and throughout her life she showed courage and determination in everything that she applied herself to. Ruth passed away on 27 March. On behalf of the government I offer my condolences to Ruth’s two children, Terry and Brad, and to her grandchildren, Kelly, Shane and Glen. Ruth will be missed.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of all coalition senators, I want to join with Senator Chris Evans in extending our sympathies to the family for former Senator Ruth Coleman, who passed away on 27 March 2008, aged 76. Senator Evans has more than adequately described the very colourful life that former Senator Coleman lived and the enormous contribution she made. I think it is more than appropriate that we should all join in celebrating most particularly what was obviously a tremendous contribution with the very worthy aim of ensuring the proper representation of women in the Commonwealth parliament. That is something we, particularly we males, should all acknowledge is vital. She obviously made a huge difference to that cause. Certainly as a former party official I have always thought that it is really important that we all work to encourage more women to put their hand up to serve in the Commonwealth parliament in particular and that women do bring a different perspective, and often it is a very civilising and important perspective.

I think Ruth Coleman showed the great virtues of passion and energy and a determination to make a difference, something which I always try to encourage in younger aspiring and actual parliamentarians: ‘Don’t come here and just be a timeserver and enjoy it. If you are going to be here try and make a difference.’ Obviously Ruth Coleman had the tremendous energy and determination to do that and had an extraordinarily colourful life in so doing. Without being unduly sensitive, I am sure Don Chipp’s then membership of the Liberal Party had nothing to do with him thinking that cricket should be played only by men, because I love seeing women play sport and I encourage it—and good on Ruth for making sure that Don got the message. I am pleased to hear that indeed they ended up good mates after that.

I also note, and I am sure Senator Evans sympathises with this, that those of us in the nearer states always have great admiration for those who serve in this place representing electorates in or the state of Western Australia. To represent Western Australia in this place, Western Australia being the biggest and the furthermost state, is extraordinarily demanding, particularly for those with families. So we acknowledge that and acknowledge what was obviously the enormous support that Ruth got from her family in undertaking that very difficult role. In fact, that is why I have always thought that the capital of Australia should have been Adelaide, to make it easier for Western Australians to come to parliament. As John Stone said, perhaps placing Canberra here was the nation’s biggest mistake. No doubt Western Australians would agree.

The other interesting thing about Ruth Coleman was this passionate opposition to uranium mining, something we on this side have never quite understood. It is very interesting to reflect on the hysteria that uranium used to cause in the Labor Party. I used to be the Liberal Party spy at national conferences of the Labor Party and witnessed the extraordinary, passionate debates about whether or not uranium should be dug out of the ground and, of course, Ruth was at the forefront of that. It is remarkable that to this day her state of Western Australia continues to ban uranium mining, much to the great benefit of my state of South Australia, which all the uranium miners are pouring into because they are not allowed to go into Western Australia. So Ruth’s passionate opposition to uranium mining continues to live on in her home state. That is a surprise to us all but that is a reflection of the passion she brought to her public life and to that issue in particular.

So we are pleased to join with Senator Evans and the government in extending to her family our deepest sympathies. Clearly, she had to recover from a very serious illness 20-odd years ago. While we are grateful that her family had another 20-odd years of sharing life with Ruth, nevertheless 76 is too young to leave this life. We are saddened by that and we extend our best wishes to her family.

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to associate the Australian Democrats with this condolence motion and debate. I did not have the privilege of knowing former Senator Coleman personally, but clearly she served in this chamber during the time of many Democrat senators. A couple of her experiences with key founding Democrat member Don Chipp have already been mentioned. I do not know if the particular incident that was mentioned was before or after he shifted to the Democrats but, given their similar views on the issues of uranium and nuclear disarmament, I am not surprised that any earlier disagreements with regard to other matters were overcome.

It is also particularly important for us as Democrats to pay tribute to pioneering women, something the Democrats as a party have always given a lot of significance and importance to. I think it is important to make two points. Firstly, for all the progress that has been made, we do need to emphasise that we are certainly well short of equality, even basic equality in numbers in this chamber and in parliament more broadly. Just 30 or so years ago, in 1974, Ruth Coleman first came into the Senate. It is not that long ago, and to think of a Senate that had less than a handful, only two or three, female senators is quite extraordinary. We have made progress since then and, whilst there is still undoubtedly progress to be made, I think it is fair to say that it is a hell of a lot harder being one woman amongst three or four than being one amongst 20 or 30. We particularly have to pay tribute to those who performed that pioneering role, whilst continuing to emphasise the need to make further progress.

In some ways it sounds minor to be singling out Ruth Coleman’s role in the simple matter of having female toilets available for senators, which is mentioned in some of the media commentary about her life. The bizarre situation in Old Parliament House of two toilets being available, one marked ‘senators’ and one marked ‘officials’, outside the Senate chamber sounds laughable now, but I am sure it was not funny at all at the time. Those sorts of basic mechanisms for exclusion might sound minor but are very telling.

Ruth Coleman played a role not just in the anti-uranium debates but in nuclear disarmament and in issues which, in the 1980s in particular, were very fierce. In some ways I wish, particularly in terms of disarmament issues, that the debates were as passionate today as they were back then. She was a key player in those battles. It was interesting to read her final speech to this Senate in June 1987, in which she mentioned her disappointment with their changing policies on uranium issues, which is obviously no secret to the Labor Party. She also made statements which, sadly, are not out of place with ones many of us would make—in fact, I may well be making a similar one in a month’s time. They were statements about being disappointed with the lack of progress in Indigenous affairs, an area that she was also a strong campaigner on in Western Australia, and in human rights issues. I was interested to read about her role. Indeed, she was sentenced to jail—but ended up not going because her fine was paid—for breaching a Western Australian law of the time, a section of the Police Act which sought to restrict meetings to no more than three people without police permission, which is reminiscent of some of the laws that used to be in place in Queensland in the 1980s.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Boswell interjecting—

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It may well not be severe. We will not have a debate on that now, Senator Boswell. The simple fact is that, at least in how it is described, it was clearly a very severe law with regard to basic civil liberties. It was probably no surprise, given the picture of Ruth Coleman that has been painted. She was at the forefront of challenging that law directly by speaking at a meeting in 1980 and, after making a speech claiming her right to address constituents, being amongst 42 people arrested in Forrest Place. As I said, she faced jail because of her refusal to pay the fine, until it was paid by someone unknown. She was clearly a woman not at all afraid to speak her mind. She spoke out on behalf of other women and of other people. That role of a senator, speaking on behalf of people whose voices would otherwise not be heard, is a very important one.

The tenacity she demonstrated by overcoming the very severe and serious brain haemorrhage that she suffered without warning just before the 1984 election should be noted, as it has been by others. To recuperate from that and come back after a year or so of convalescing shows determination and also, as I think she also said in her speech upon returning, her love of the role of the Senate and the work that she could do there.

It is a bit unfortunate, but totally understandable, that we sometimes have few people speak to condolence motions for people who last served in this place many years ago. In some ways, I guess we all hope that we will live long enough that, when we do die, there will be no-one left serving here who remembers us. That would mean we have managed to survive for a fair while, so it is probably not a bad thing in lots of ways. But it does tend to mean that former senators’ contributions may not be as fully recognised as they might otherwise have been.

Clearly, Ruth Coleman was a pioneering woman in many ways. She has left a legacy not just for the Senate but for public engagement and political debate more broadly. As I think Senator Evans mentioned in his contribution, Ruth Coleman left school at the age of 13 or 14. She is one of a number of people who showed that a lack of formal education was no barrier to contributing incredibly effectively to the wider community, and indeed to political debate. That of course is not an exhortation that people should forget about school and go do something else; it is a reminder that, when people have that tenacity, that determination and that talent, they can overcome a lot of hurdles. Ruth Coleman did that in lots of ways. I am sure that the Senate, her state of Western Australia and the nation are better for her contribution. I associate the Democrats both with this motion and with condolences for her family.

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Ruth Coleman, who died on 27 March, served in the parliament from 1974 to 1987 as a senator for Western Australia. When elected she was one of only five women in the federal parliament—four in the Senate and one, Joan Child, in the House of Representatives. A feminist and fighter for many women’s causes, she commented in 1975, soon after being elected:

I think we are not mature enough yet to accept that women can be just as successful in the political field as in any other, and once this maturity arrives, we won’t appear so freakish. It’s unfortunate that we only have five female members out of 187. I’d like to see 25 to 30 women in—I don’t think that is too many out of 187, but I’ll not see it in my lifetime.

Well, she did see it in her lifetime, and she also saw encouraging progress during her time of service in the parliament. When she retired from the Senate in 1987 there were 25 women in the parliament, 17 of them in the Senate. And of course it is due to trailblazers like Ruth Coleman that we now have a total of 68 women—28 senators and 40 members—in the parliament. We owe her and those early women in the parliament a huge debt.

The return of the Whitlam government after the double dissolution in 1974 saw three Labor women elected to parliament: Ruth Coleman and Jean Melzer to the Senate and Joan Child to the House of Representatives, which had been without a woman member since October 1969. By 1984 Senator Coleman was the longest serving Labor woman in the federal parliament. Her background as Secretary of the Consumer Action Movement ensured that consumer protection was one of the issues she pursued here, and one that featured in her maiden speech. She served on many committees, including one on Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Territory and another on the Family Law Act. Not wanting to be restricted to so-called women’s issues, she chose to serve on, and later chair, the Senate Standing Committee on Industry and Trade rather than the health and welfare committee initially offered to her. She was co-convener of the parliamentary disarmament group and belonged to the Parliamentary Group of Amnesty International and to the ALP Parliamentarians Committee for Peace and Justice.

Senator Ruth Coleman’s maiden speech heralded the arrival in this parliament of a passionate feminist. She spoke of the discrimination faced by women in obtaining finance and of the requirement then for a male guarantor for financial loans and other matters. Soon after her arrival in the Senate she began campaigning for more women’s toilets in the parliament—such practical things—and she joined a protest by 30 members of the Women’s Electoral Lobby who were refused service in a ‘men-only’ bar at the old Canberra Rex Hotel. These issues received comprehensive press coverage. More importantly, perhaps, she highlighted the desperate shortages of women’s refuges, especially in Western Australia, and spoke of systematic police violence towards Aborigines in the north-west of Western Australia, sparking calls for a royal commission into these allegations. Another passionate cause for Senator Coleman was her anti-uranium mining and antinuclear weapons campaigns. She featured at protests at which she, with other Labor politicians, was arrested. She was indignant at one time when her court-imposed fine was paid by an anonymous supporter so that she did not go to jail.

Ruth was respected by, and in turn respected and maintained friendships with, a great number of the parliamentarians of her time including, for example, Liberals Fred Chaney and Peter Baume. On her retirement in 1987 Senator Chaney spoke of the trust and appreciation that had built up, and Senator Coleman spoke of the cross-party friendships, built often through committee work. In her valedictory speech she vowed to continue to apply pressure on questions of human rights, Aboriginal health and land rights, and in the debates on uranium and nuclear issues.

Susan Ryan, who was elected to the Senate in December 1975, commented of Ruth that ‘the constant travel from Perth to Canberra was cruel, but she withstood it stoically’. However, at the end of 1984 she suffered three severe aneurysms on the brain and spent 1985 fighting her way back to health. The Senate welcomed her back at the beginning of 1986, with many comments on her courage. Among her many interests were Scrabble and bowls, and in 1983 she was the first woman to win the parliamentary snooker handicap competition.

Of the senators in this current parliament only three served with Ruth Coleman, the only Labor senator being Senator Robert Ray, who of course has left us. I am very sorry that Senator Ray has left us. Senator Ray would remember the great controversy over the parliamentary cricket team of 1975, when Don Chipp sought to field a Parliamentary XI to play the Australian Cricket Society. Senator Coleman asked to be included in the team. Don Chipp, then on the Liberal opposition front bench, replied, inter alia:

My dear Senator, I am proud that I have never been accused of male chauvinism ... God knows, and all Members of Parliament know, that it is International Women’s Year ...[but] I must draw the line somewhere. To me, cricket is a sacred game, and as one of its many purists ... it is with great reluctance—but equal firmness—that I withdraw the invitation to you to play cricket in the Parliamentary Xl ...

Subsequently he was reported as saying:

If she bowled as fast as Thompson, with the guile of Lindwall, the hostility of Lillee, batted with the panache of Ian Chappell and the grace of Greg Chappell, and kept wickets as well as Marsh or Knott, the dear lady still would not play in my cricket team.

Complaining of Mr Chipp’s patronising air, and the fact that he had not bothered to determine whether or not she could play, Ruth set about recruiting a rival parliamentary cricket team to play a mixed team from the press gallery. The two teams played on the same day, with Don Chipp’s team being defeated and Ruth Coleman’s team scoring ‘a disputed win’.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to associate the National Party with this condolence motion. I was one of the people who served in this parliament with Ruth Coleman. She was going out when I was coming in. Her term was from 1974 to 1987 and mine started in 1983. From memory, I think there was a parliamentary group of Amnesty International that was made up of one person from every party in the Senate, and I believe I was representing the Amnesty International group, or the disarmament group, for the National Party, so I had a fair bit to do with her on occasions.

I acknowledge her pioneering role and her involvement in promoting women into parliament. I can remember that she was totally committed to the anti-uranium movement. She was interested in Aboriginal affairs and I can recall her championing all those causes. She was a pioneer in her day. She broke new ground for women and it sounds as though she was well and truly able to stand up for herself and use whatever she could to promote women. Whether it was gaining a drink at the front bar of the Rex Hotel or playing a mixed cricket match, she used those avenues to promote her cause very cleverly. I give my best wishes to her family in this time of sadness.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.