Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight, in the season approaching all things Irish and green, to put on the record the celebration that happened in honour of St Brigid in the inaugural Brigid Awards, which happened in Sydney just a couple of weeks ago on 29 January. They were hosted by the Irish Friends of Labor. I am pleased that my colleague Senator Claire Moore is in the chamber this evening, because I do recall that the very first proper celebration I had of St Brigid's Day was actually with Senator Moore at the Irish Club in Brisbane, where they have established this tradition somewhat earlier. Nonetheless, we kicked it off in fine style in Sydney. I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge the contribution of Irish-Australian and Australian-Irish people throughout the history of this great nation and particularly to acknowledge Labor and union women who have made a great contribution in recent times. There were a number of recipients, who have made great contributions, and I would like to put those formally on the record.

Our youngest awardee was Siobhan Armson-Graham, who was nominated by Courtney Housses MLC. Siobhan is a Young Labor and Transport Workers' Union activist and, in her position as the convenor of the Australian Young Labor Women's Network, she has been the driving force for the party's increasing engagement with young women. She has worked tirelessly to recruit, support and promote young women in our party, and she is the youngest woman who was honoured on the evening. Just to put it on the record, the old tradition of telling Irish jokes is met in Ireland with jokes told about the differences between the counties in Ireland, and this county contest is quite an important part of your identity in Ireland. So to hail from a particular county is an important thing. I want to acknowledge that Siobhan's Irish heritage takes her back to the counties of Cork and Kerry, in the southern part of Ireland.

Jude Cooke, who was nominated by Trish Doyle, the member for the Blue Mountains, has worked as a TAFE teacher for around 15 years. Her award acknowledged her as an active member of the Australian Education Union and the Blue Mountains Unions Council. She introduced many local courses that address socioeconomic disadvantage, and she has been a very strong advocate and proponent of social justice in a very practical sense. She was born in New Zealand and is of mixed descent, including Irish on both sides.

Our third awardee of the evening was Ann Faraday, nominated by Goulburn Labor. Ann is a longstanding member of United Voice and has worked as a school cleaner in Goulburn for more than 30 years. She was a branch delegate to the Goulburn SEC and FEC for many years, and she is an active member of the Goulburn District Unions and eligible for life membership of that organisation next year. 'A passionate connection to Ireland,' is how she describes her heritage. She is second generation Irish Australian and she loves her Irish history. She is making history tonight, and I am sure that her Irish relatives would be very proud of her contribution to this, her new nation.

I also indicate that we acknowledged Kayee Griffin. Nominated by the Narrabeen-Pittwater ALP Branch, Kayee is a former New South Wales MLC, and held the positions of Mayor of Canterbury and Vice President of the Australian Services Union. A lifelong ALP and union activist with a proud family tradition of labour activism, she has been a member of the Labor Party since 1973. She was the first female Mayor of Canterbury, and she served in the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2003 to 2011. Kayee had the distinguished honour of being the first female organiser at the Municipal Employees Union, and she also served as the vice president of the ASU for the period of 1995 to 1999 and senior vice president from 1999 until her election to the Legislative Council in 2003. Her Irish heritage comes from the fine counties of Donegal, Limerick, Kilkenny and Tipperary.

The honourable Dr Tricia Marie Kavanagh was nominated by Michael Daley, the member for Maroubra. Dr Kavanagh has made rich and varied contributions to Australian society through the union movement, through the Australian Labor Party, through the law and through her many charitable works. With a commitment to women's participation within the ALP, as the Assistant Secretary of the Labor Women's Organising Committee, member of the New South Wales Labor Administrative Committee, delegate to national conference and active branch member across South-East Sydney, Dr Kavanagh has served the party and her community with distinction. She is also the deputy chair of the review tribunal of the New South Wales branch of Labor. Her significant legal record includes Justice of the Industrial Court, Deputy President of the Industrial Relations Commission and Presiding Member of the Racing Tribunal of New South Wales. She is a descendent of two Irish families and a dual Irish-Australian citizen.

Dee Madigan gave perhaps the most irreverent speech of the evening, and those who have heard her in full flight would know what a delight that is to behold. Dee is an award-winning creative director with over 20 years experience in advertising. And, as she confessed to us, her father was a leading light in her life when she was growing up, and he was, in fact, a priest—she said not a very good one, and that is how she commenced her speech on the evening. She has been a winner or a finalist of most major awards, including Cannes. She has been a creative director on seven election campaigns for the ALP, including the 2013 federal campaign and the very successful 2015 Queensland state election. She does work with unions and has developed a number of campaigns for a range of unions across the country. She has her own advertising agency, Campaign Edge. She is frequently seen as panellist on Gruen as well as a political commentator on Sky. Her mother was born in Meath and her father was from County Clare.

Karen McKeown was nominated by John Graham, assistant secretary of New South Wales Labor. She is the first female mayor of Penrith in over a decade and is an outstanding local government leader and advocate for women. She has held roles such as convenor of the New South Wales Labor councillors caucus and president of the Australian Local Government Women's Association in New South Wales, and she has served on the Joint Ministerial Advisory Council on Women in Local Government. As an Australian ambassador for women in local government, she has been active in Western Sydney in an important range of roles. She is married to an Irishman born in Belfast, and all of her children have dual Australian-Irish citizenship. Her own grandmother was Irish and hailed from County Louth.

Tara Moriarty, nominated by Kaila Murnain, the now general secretary of New South Wales Labor, has dedicated her life to the Labor movement and the Labor Party. As the senior vice-president, she is the most senior elected female officer of the Labor Party in New South Wales and had a very significant role in the fight for affirmative action rules at Labor's national conference in 2015. She is the secretary of the Liquor and Hospitality Division, United Voice in New South Wales and was a key activist and leader in the Your Rights At Work campaign in 2007. She comes from a long line of Irish heritage.

Patricia Okon, nominated by the Lithgow branch of the ALP, is a longstanding community and ALP activist. She was born on 15 January 1929 and is a pillar of the Lithgow community. She is a mother of nine children, and I am just overwhelmed at the thought of all the washing and folding that that involved. But she managed to get out of the house to all those ALP branch meetings, and she has certainly been a very active member since 1991. She has served as the Lithgow branch treasurer since 1996 and is the longest serving executive member of the Lithgow branch.

Dr Ursula Stephens—no stranger to this place—was also acknowledged on the evening. Nominated, once again, by Kaila Murnain, our general secretary for New South Wales, she served in this place for 13 years. Prior to entering the Senate, she was the first female president of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party. She has dedicated her career to serving the people of New South Wales, where she continues to do great community work in her hometown of Goulburn. In the 2015 election, she contested the state seat of Goulburn and received an extraordinary swing towards her of 20 per cent. Ursula has an extremely close Irish heritage. In fact, she was born in County Wicklow.

I would also like to acknowledge Noreen Solomon, a member of the ALP since 1980. A tireless community activist, she has stood as an ALP election candidate on several occasions in the Sutherland Shire area. She is first generation Irish. Her father, Frank, emigrated from Clones in County Monaghan at the age of 17. Noreen was nominated by the Cronulla/Caringbah ALP branch.

Our lifetime achievement award went to the Hon. Susan Ryan AO, the Australian Age Discrimination Commissioner and Disability Discrimination Commissioner. From 1975 to 1988 she was a senator for the ACT, becoming the first woman to hold a cabinet position in a federal Labor government. She served in senior portfolios in the Hawke government as Minister for Education and Youth Affairs, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women and Special Minister of State. As the education minister, she saw school retention rates double and universities and TAFEs grow significantly. She pioneered extensive anti-discrimination and equal opportunity legislation, including the landmark Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and the Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Act 1986.

These are all women of fine Irish-Australian heritage making a wonderful contribution to our civic life. It was a pleasure to share the evening with them and to acknowledge their achievements.