Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death on 20 November 2017 of Jean Margaret Hearn, a senator for the state of Tasmania from 1980 to 1985.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep regret at the death, on 20 November 2017, of Mrs Jean Margaret Hearn, former senator for Tasmania, places on record its appreciation for her service to the Parliament and the nation, and tenders its sympathy to her family in their bereavement.

Jean Margaret Hearn, nee Button, was born in Launceston on 30 March 1921. She was the eldest child of Elton Roy Button, a draper, and Emily Gertrude Button. She was raised in the small town of Smithton, on Tasmania's north-west coast, and was educated at the Methodist Ladies' College in Launceston.

On 28 December 1940, Jean married Frederick Howe, with whom she had a son. It was a year after the outbreak of war. In another 12 months time, the war would reach the Pacific. Frederick enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force. In 1942 he was captured by the Japanese in Timor, and in 1944 he perished in a POW camp in Java.

Frederick Howe's death had a profound effect on Jean, igniting a commitment to pacifism that would endure unabated all her life and inform many of her contributions to public debate in this place. It was a pacifism of the 'swords into ploughshares' variety. She became a Quaker, and in her maiden speech to the chamber she lamented that the earth's finite resources were being wasted on the machinery of war:

Vast sums of money—

she said—

are spent on armaments while millions die of starvation each day. The world has, in kilograms per person, more explosives than food. Yet, it is not only the shortage of food which is the cause of hunger but the price that is put upon food.

She continued:

If we consider the money that is spent on armaments—as much money is spent on armaments in one hour as is spent on all the underprivileged children of the world in one year—surely it is a matter of shame.

In 1948 Jean married Alfred Beverley Hearn, a schoolteacher from Ballarat. The couple had two sons and a daughter together and moved to Geelong in 1954, where Jean worked as a preschool superintendent. It was the same year that Jean was to join the Labor Party, though she would not play an active role in party politics for more than a decade to come.

The family returned to Tasmania after five years in Geelong. Here Jean Hearn worked as a librarian, first in the Huon Valley for five years and then for another four in Burnie, before returning to Launceston to assume the position of supervisor at Broadland House Church of England Girls Grammar School. Jean's preparliamentary years in Launceston were spent in the service of countless local community projects and interest groups. She was, among other things, President of the Launceston Family Day Care Association from 1975 to 1980 and a founding member of the Regional Council for Social Development. She served on the state council of the Family Planning Association of Tasmania from 1970; co-authored a cookbook, entitled A Taste of Tasmania; and practised as a civil celebrant from 1975 until after her election to the Senate.

Jean Hearn joined the Tasmanian Labor Party's State Administrative Committee in 1970, the first woman ever to have been elected to that body. Her first, unsuccessful, tilt at elected office came two years later, when she was among the eight Labor candidates to run for a seat in the state division of Bass. Between 1975 and 1977 she worked as a research assistant for former President of the Senate Senator Justin O'Byrne. Two years later, in 1979, she was preselected to lead the Labor Party's Tasmanian Senate ticket, guaranteeing her election to the Senate at the poll scheduled for October 1980. Three days prior to polling day, however, Jean was appointed by the Tasmanian parliament to fill the casual vacancy created by the departure of the leader of the Labor Party in the Senate, Ken Wriedt, who had resigned to contest the seat of Denison. And so, following the expiration of former Senator Wriedt's term on 30 June 1981, Jean Hearn returned to the Senate, having in the meantime occupied the casual vacancy, the very next day to take the seat she had won in her own right.

The Senate was ideally suited to Jean Hearn's outspoken style and provided her with a platform from which to pursue the causes that had animated a lifetime of activism. She served on the Senate Legislative and General Purpose Standing Committee on Trade and Commerce from March till September 1981 and on the Standing Committee on Education and the Arts from September 1981 until her retirement in June 1985. It was to the latter of these committees in particular that she brought a unique perspective from her work in schools and as a long-time proponent of Steiner education.

Jean Hearn was re-elected on a short term at the March 1983 double-dissolution election and remained outspoken on the issues that had first spurred her involvement in public life. In 1984, she became the founding secretary of a parliamentary friendship group for nuclear disarmament, and was sympathetic to the New Zealand Labor government's declaration of a nuclear-free zone in 1984, using her growing public profile to push for global disarmament and nonproliferation in parliament as well as in print. In fact, Jean would frequently pen letters to all manner of newspapers and periodicals on matters of public interest, from the ANZUS Treaty to the old age pension. However, it was among her more esoteric missives in print that would lead to one of the odder episodes of Jean Hearn's career.

In a letter published in the autumn 1985 edition of Organic GrowingMagazine, Senator Hearn wrote, somewhat impenetrably:

The cow has horns in order to send into itself the cosmic astro-ethereal formative forces, which, pressing inwards, are meant to penetrate right into the digestive organism of the cow. In comparison—

Senator Hearn explained—

the antlers of the deer are altogether different. Observe the deer's intense communication and sensitivity to the outer world. Through the antlers, the deer sends outwards certain currents and lives very consciously with its environment, thereby receiving all that works organically in the nerves and senses. In certain respects—

Senator Hearn concluded—

all animals possessing antlers are filled with a gentle nervousness and quickness. We see it in their eyes.

When reportage of Senator Hearn's theory of the cosmic properties of certain livestock spread beyond the subscribership of Organic Growing Magazine to The Sydney Morning Herald, the senator disappointingly declined to elaborate further.

Under the then retirement rules of the Labor Party's Tasmanian branch, Jean Hearn was deemed ineligible to stand for re-election following the expiration of her term on 30 June 1985 because of her age. And so, in what she knew would be her final speech to the chamber on 31 May 1985, Senator Hearn reflected upon the aims that had motivated her election to office half a decade prior: civil liberties, human rights, economic inequality and community cohesion. Of her impending retirement, she claimed to be looking forward to the opportunity to continue to work for those ideals which can create for people the realisation of peace and true humanity. In pursuit of these laudable aims, Jean Hearn was tireless to the end.

In 2015, already well into her 90s, Jean Hearn oversaw the creation of the Tamar Community Peace Trust to raise awareness of peace issues through the arts, education and the media. In 2016, at 95 years of age, she was selected as Tasmania's nominee for Senior Australian of the Year, in recognition of her lifelong advocacy for peace. Half a century of political activism and public service never dimmed Jean Hearn's idealism, nor dented her determination. And in appreciation of a life given to the betterment of humanity, I offer, on behalf of the government, my gratitude for her service and tender my condolences to her family.

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

I rise on behalf of the opposition to speak on and acknowledge the passing of one of our own, former Labor senator Jean Margaret Hearn, who passed away on Monday, 21 November, at the age of 96. On behalf of the opposition, I express our deepest condolences to her family, her friends and all who knew her. On Tuesday last week, Mrs Hearn's eldest son, Michael Howe, reflected on his mother's life. He said:

Jean Hearn always tried to make a positive difference and devoted considerable energy to working for the wellbeing of her community, peace and opportunity for young people.

Mr Howe went on to reflect that her parliamentary career was a means through which she was particularly able to channel those passions. Her life, not just her time in this parliament, but including it, is a testament to convictions, beliefs, values and hard work.

Born in Launceston in 1921, Mrs Hearn was the eldest of four children and grew up on the north-west coast of Tasmania. She married in 1940, but, as was sadly the case for so many women at that time, she lost her husband during World War II. Frederik Howe died in 1944 as a prisoner of war. Out of this tragic event came a lifelong commitment to pacifism. It also manifested itself through membership of the Religious Society of Friends, better known as Quakers, and of the Australian Anthroposophical Society. The latter, which emphasises the potential for spiritual development in all human beings, played a major part in the development of her political thinking. She remarried in 1948, taking the last name of Alfred Hearn, who was a teacher. It was around that time she joined our party, the Australian Labor Party.

For the next three decades, before being elected to the Senate, she worked in a number of professions. She worked as a librarian, as a school supervisor and as a civil celebrant. She worked in a range of voluntary activities and for a range of associations: the Family Planning Association of Tasmania, where she served on the state council; the Regional Council for Social Development, of which she was a foundation member; the Organic Gardening and Farming Society; the Launceston Family Day Care Association, of which she served as president; the Child Care Accident Prevention Steering Committee; and the Mayfield Youth Support Scheme, of which she served as vice-president—a wide and varied range of community contributions. In 1970 she joined what was then called the Miscellaneous Workers' Union. She also worked for former Labor senator Justin O'Byrne in the 1970s. Former Senator O'Byrne's great-niece, Tasmanian deputy Labor leader, Michelle O'Byrne, recalled that, 'Walking away from something was unacceptable to Jean.'

In 1980 Jean Hearn was chosen to fill the casual vacancy to represent Tasmania in the Senate, following the resignation of Ken Wriedt. She was successfully re-elected that year, having already been chosen as the first woman to head the Labor Senate ticket in Tasmania before the casual vacancy arose. This is yet another occasion, sadly, where I stand here to pay tribute to a Labor woman whose courage and determination enabled many of us on this side of the chamber to pursue a career in politics. Jean Hearn, again, headed the Tasmanian Senate ticket for the simultaneous dissolution in 1983 and was allocated to the class of senators for the shorter term, following that election, so her term concluded on 30 June 1985. She retired upon its expiration, as the Tasmanian branch of the ALP in those days had retiring-age rules in place.

Mrs Hearn can be described as a genuine idealist. She came to the Senate with a vision of social justice and supported the charitable work of churches and welfare groups. She saw there was a need to more equitably distribute resources, and, in a testament to her pacifism, believed the budget for weapons purchases would be far better invested in the feeding of the poor. She also wasn't afraid of challenging the prevailing attitudes in a male-dominated parliament. In particular she took on the Fraser government, noting that family breakdown was a major social problem of the day and that it was the policies of the Liberals that put increasing pressure on people who could least cope with it.

Mrs Hearn also saw the opportunity for much greater engagement of Australians with their political system, believing an effective democracy demands informed participation. Another consistent theme of her contributions was the importance of a clean environment, extending from raising concerns about asbestos and opposition to chemical spraying in her home state, to membership of the Senate Select Committee on Animal Welfare. In our party she also served as a delegate to our national conference and as a member of the National Status Of Women Committee.

After politics Jean Hearn looked forward to continuing to support and advocate for the causes she believed in her whole life, and, after she left the Senate, she did so. She sought to further what she described as 'those ideals which can create for people the realisation of peace and true humanity'. She continued to engage with organisations and community groups that shared these goals. Amongst the activities she undertook in her life after the Senate was support as patroness of Life Works at Home, an organisation that was dedicated to providing support to ageing people who wished to remain in their homes. In 2015 Mrs Hearn established the Tamar Community Peace Trust, seeking to promote a non-violent approach to conflict resolution, and this trust is one of the most significant ways in which her legacy will live on. My friend Michelle O'Byrne said, 'I think her legacy was that you don't have to compromise your true values as you progress the things you want to do.'

We remember Jean Hearn as a passionate advocate for social justice, as a passionate advocate for world peace and as someone unafraid to hold her own party to account. She was never someone to walk away from her true values, and she continued to work tirelessly to achieve them into her 90s. I repeat: we on this side mourn the loss of yet another generation of Labor women who forged the path so that many of us could stand in this Senate today. On behalf of Labor senators, we extend our deepest sympathies to her family and friends at this time.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to rise today on a personal note and also on behalf of the Australian Greens to offer our condolences to Jean's family and friends and pay our respects to her. Jean was a friend of mine. I visited her only a few weeks ago while she was in hospital and I said to her, 'I'm sorry I haven't seen much of you, Jean, especially in recent years, but I do say that to just about everyone I meet these days.' And she gave me a mischievous little smile. We had a good chat, and it reminded me, even then, when Jean was, I suppose, in her last moments, that she still had that intensity that I remember from when I first met her.

I went along—it would have been over 10 years ago—to a meeting on Balfour Street in Launceston because I had a vineyard and I was interested in learning about biodynamics. I wanted to know more about biodynamics. I was interested in meeting experts who could tell me how I could better grow my grapes according to this philosophy. When I went to that meeting, I got a lot more than I bargained for. I remember this quite small in stature and quite frail but formidable woman who actually almost gave me a sermon on spirituality and, more importantly, on things that I was really interested in, such as economics and our role in an economy that puts people first, an economy that prioritises the needs of workers and nature. So I was quite intrigued.

I went along to a second meeting and I got to know Jean a little bit better. Then, over the years, as I met with Jean and learnt more about the Steiner movement—my children were quite young at that stage and I was interested in the concept of a Steiner school; my children had been to a Montessori school when we lived overseas—Jean convinced me to join the board of the Launceston Steiner association, which I did. And then, of course, I met with her on a regular basis, and, fortunately, in my time there, I introduced the late Jeremy Ball to that association as well, because he was very active in the Launceston community and he had younger children.

I remember my time with Jean very fondly. I even remember sitting in her lounge room having a cup of tea while she told me what my dreams meant. She was the kind of person that you could completely open up to. She was a very spiritual person and also a very calming, peaceful person. I regret that I didn't spend enough time with her in recent years. I was well aware of the great work she was doing at the Launceston peace festival. I was reliably informed that I couldn't speak at it because she wanted to keep it apolitical—something that didn't surprise me about Jean. I know, being a Green—even when I first met her, I was just starting to run for the Greens—she always respected my views on politics. I always respected hers. One of the last things she said to me, in hospital a few weeks ago, was: 'Always put the party first, Peter. No matter what you do, the party will look after you. Always remember to put the party first.' Not that that was particularly an issue for me, but, nevertheless, I know exactly what Jean was referring to there. She was certainly an inspiration to me, as she was to many Launcestonians, and I'm a better man for the time that I spent with her.

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to rise to say a few words about Jean Hearn and pay my condolence on the occasion of her death. I knew Jean personally. I met Jean when I joined the Labor Party, prior to her becoming a senator. Anyone that knew Jean Hearn knew that she dealt with issues with passion and commitment, and that same passion and commitment is the way she worked for Tasmania and for Tasmanians. Indeed, my brother, Philip, worked for Jean up in Launceston and he had nothing but admiration and complete and utter loyalty to Jean in her work and her commitment to Tasmania. If he were around today—and, sadly, he is not—he would be the first to talk about Jean and her work and what Jean meant to the Labor Party and the Tasmanian branch, in particular.

Jean was a very well-known figure in the Tasmanian branch of the ALP, particularly for her activism in the cause of peace, an activism that sprang from her own life experience. She was a trailblazer for women in the ALP, being the first woman to be a member of the Tasmanian ALP administrative committee, a position she held from 1970 to 1980—and I can tell you there weren't that many women on the administrative committee during that whole period. Jean was, indeed, one of the women that really led the way to opening up the ALP in terms of representation of women.

In 1972 Jean stood for election to the House of Assembly for the seat of Bass under Tasmania's Hare-Clark system. During the campaign, she attacked the Labor Party's position on state aid to schools. Her willingness to speak up on issues she believed in continued throughout her career in the party. On this occasion, Jean was eliminated from the count at an early stage and was unsuccessful.

As you've heard, Jean was also a political staffer serving Senator Justin O'Byrne, in what was an extremely politically charged time from 1975 to 1977. In 1979, Jean was selected by the state council to head the ALP Senate ticket, the first woman to do so. As it transpired, she in fact became a senator before the 1980 federal election, as she was selected to replace Senator Ken Wriedt, who went on to lead the state Labor Party.

Jean became a senator in her own right, having been elected at the 1980 federal election. Jean Hearn was known as an idealist and a person who participated in issues of politics, as opposed to machine politics. She was interested in and active in a broad range of issues, having strong commitment to women's rights, peace, social justice, equity and the natural environment. In 1981, she was joint chair of the first Tasmanian ALP women's conference. In 1984, Senator Jean Hearn founded a parliamentary disarmament group. She supported the introduction of peace education into the Australian school curriculum and questioned the presence of US military forces in Australia. Jean's Senate term ended in June 1985. Under the then ALP Tasmanian rules, she was not allowed to seek a further term due to her age.

While Senator Jean Hearn asked questions and supported causes that would bring her into conflict with others in the ALP, she also had a broad range of personal interests. As we've heard, she was a marriage celebrant. She co-wrote a cookbook and was a long-time supporter of Steiner education. She loved gardening and was opposed to plant patenting and to the aerial spraying of crops. We will miss Jean, and the Tasmanian ALP will always remember Jean's contribution.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make a few comments, but I certainly would like to associate myself with Senator Brown's contribution. I was a younger woman when I returned to Tasmania from living in Victoria back in 1983, and, hence, when I met the then Senator Jean Hearn, she was quite an articulate, outspoken woman. I think she was a little more tolerant of me because of the fact that my own father spent 3½ years as a prisoner of war with the Japanese and the fact that there had been a long history as well with my older brother. But what I will remember Jean most for is her solemn support for peace. She was outspoken, she was passionate and she was caring. In terms of nuclear disarmament, I think there was no-one in Tasmania from the Labor Party who was more earnest in their drive to see that we took that policy and issue very seriously.

When it came to women's issues, Jean was very supportive. I remember going along to one of my first meetings of the Status of Women Committee and she was, as always, outspoken. It was in more recent years when I took on the responsibility of shadow assistant minister for ageing to the shadow minister for ageing, Julie Collins, that I went to visit her. I took one of my young staff members along because I wanted him to meet her and to understand the history and her involvement in opening many doors for future Labor women to come through, hence why I'm standing here today. She broke down a lot of those barriers for us. Jean was so engaging. She was already 95 at that stage, but she was still very passionate. She said, 'Helen, you have to get people to listen because our ageing population needs far more support.' Even though she was still living at home, she had some assistants coming in to help her. But she was determined to stay in her own home. We left that afternoon after having a cup of tea with her—you couldn't visit her without having a cup of tea—feeling quite motivated and invigorated to continue with our battle to make sure ageing was on the national agenda.

Jean's strong advocacy when it came to Steiner education and her role in supporting women have already been highlighted. Even though there were times when we were on very different sides of the political agenda, she was always respectful. She was always willing to explain to you in great detail why you were wrong, and from that you could always hear why. I, and on behalf of Senator Bilyk, want to place on record our respect for her. Her legacy will live on.

Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to pay tribute to former Tasmanian Labor senator Jean Hearn. Jean's lifetime of activism, community service and determination leaves a tremendous legacy in our party and in the broader Tasmanian community. Jean lived in every corner of Tasmania, including in Smithton in her early years and in Burnie on the north-west coast for four years in the 1960s. We're a parochial lot in Tasmania. Yes, Senator Hearn spent the rest of her life in Launceston—when north-west coasters can claim someone of her calibre, both politically and industrially, we will do so.

In her few years in Burnie in the mid-sixties, Jean founded the pacifist group Society to Uphold the Universal Human Rights, writing many letters to the press and governments, organising rallies and supporting conscientious objectors. After 16 years as a member of the Labor Party, it was in 1970 that Jean became the first woman ever elected to the Tasmanian Labor Party's Administrative Committee through her membership of the left-wing Miscellaneous Workers Union. A decade later Jean was the first woman to be preselected at the top of the Tasmanian Labor Senate ticket for the 1980 election. It's worth reflecting that since December 2011 Tasmania's Labor Senate delegation has comprised solely women. Jean started something. We're a landmark group and we owe Jean a great deal for her pioneering work.

In Jean's first speech she expressed her concern that Australians were being sacrificed to a system that put economic values and profits before the value and potential of a human person, and declared, 'Working people are not to be discarded as an item of cost at the swing of an imbalanced market, because people have a right to work.' Those words very much ring true to this day with the rise of insecure work and the relentless attacks on working Australians from their own government. Twice elected as a senator, Jean was an outspoken member of caucus who sought to ask hard questions of those in power, even when Labor was in government.

Long after retirement from the Senate and well into her 90s, Jean was inspired by the 2014 Anzac Day address from former Tasmanian Governor Peter Underwood, where he called on Tasmanians to do something, to learn how to create peace, to create the Tasmanian Valley Peace Trust, which we've heard about. The trust has held annual festivals in the Tamar Valley promoting peace and harmony through collective activities. Just last year Jean was a nominee for Tasmanian Senior Australian of the Year, a fitting public recognition of her lifetime of peace advocacy.

Our party, the union movement and the broader Tasmanian and Australian communities are richer for Jean's active participation and leadership. Vale Jean Hearn.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.