Motions

Women's Suffrage Anniversary

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (16:52): I move:

1. That, in the opinion of this house, a joint committee be established to inquire into and report on matters relating to the 125^th anniversary of women's suffrage and to consider—

(a) the significance of the Adult Suffrage Bill 1894;

(b) the courageous political campaign by South Australian suffragists, unions, and women's rights movements;

(c) recognition of Aboriginal women in South Australia, who gained the right to vote in 1894, but were denied the right to vote at Federation until 1967;

(d) ways to commemorate the 125^th anniversary of women's suffrage in South Australia; and

(e) any other related matter.

2. That, in the event of a joint committee being appointed, the House of Assembly shall be represented thereon by three members, of whom two shall form a quorum of assembly members necessary to be present at all sittings of the committee.

3. That a message be sent to the Legislative Council transmitting the foregoing resolution and requesting its concurrence thereto.

In an extraordinary effort, South Australian suffragists, women's rights movements and unions called for a social and electoral reform, including universal franchise and a proportional voting system. Their collective efforts triggered public momentum and political inquiry into the question of female suffrage. The core essence of their courageous campaign was that the social and industrial interests of women can be advanced by women's political enfranchisement.

On 18 December 1894, the South Australian parliament passed the Adult Suffrage Bill, which granted women the right to vote and stand for election in the colony's parliament. In March 1895, the bill received royal assent from Her Majesty Queen Victoria and on 25 April 1896 women in South Australia voted for the first time in the colony's election. South Australia was the fourth jurisdiction in the world to grant women the right to vote, but even more notable is that we were the first jurisdiction in the world to grant women the right to stand for parliament. We are forever indebted to the female suffragists behind this success in 1894. These women were by no means homogenous. The reasons behind their decision to fight for universal franchise were more complex than might be thought.

Mary Lee, dubbed 'the streetfighter', was a widow who led a paper petition, collecting an impressive 11,600 signatures. Catherine Helen Spence was an intellectual powerhouse. Augusta Zadow was dedicated to improving the rights of working women. Many other suffragists, including Rosetta Birks, utterly believed that women should have full enjoyment of the inalienable right to have a say. The quest towards women's voting rights was fundamentally about giving women freedom from oppression. It reflected and grew out of concerns about unregulated sexual and employment exploitation of women and young girls, their poor access to education, denial of property rights and other deeply entrenched inequalities.

In essence, the suffrage movement was underpinned by optimism: if women gained the right to vote, there would be a natural defence against exploitation and other inequalities. History has proved this true. While it took years for women to stand for election, the cultural change that was achieved during this time was truly momentous. South Australia is a progressive state, and the 125^th anniversary of women's suffrage will be an opportunity for our community to rebuild its understanding of the significance of the Adult Suffrage Bill 1894.

With the right combination of influence from politicians, expertise from our women's sector and the involvement of our broader community, we can identify the best way to commemorate the contributions of women from 1894 to 2019. Given the broad interest in this matter, I moved that a joint select committee on the 125^th anniversary of women's suffrage be appointed. There is a potential for meaningful participation by members of this parliament, representatives from local government and our wider community. I seek support for the motion.

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (16:57): I indicate that the opposition will be supporting the motion. There are a couple of matters I would like to raise. Firstly, in the event that this motion passes, which I sincerely expect it to do, I nominate myself to be available to serve as a representative for the House of Assembly. I understand that two other nominees will be elected by the minister for that purpose. In the event that the Legislative Council elects to join this committee, which, of course, we hope they will do, I expect the Hon. Michelle Lensink, our shadow minister for women, to take up that cause. We will leave it to the minister, of course, to exercise such persuasion as she might have in the cabinet to ensure that we have sufficient funds to celebrate this most important occasion in 2019.

I would like to say a couple of things in respect of matters raised in the motion. Firstly, in respect of the reference to Aboriginal women, I think it should be remembered that Aboriginal men in South Australia had the vote pre-1984. Indeed, they had the vote in South Australia before white women. It was still a very disappointing era in that, by the time we got to Federation, Aboriginal men and women were no longer allowed to go on the electoral roll. However, those men who were already on the roll (and very few women, I expect) were actually allowed to stay to continue to vote. Because they were already on the roll, they were not excluded. So, it was actually an exclusion since then.

The other thing that needs to be looked at, and it is perhaps one of the issues that we will look at, is the right to vote at the time of Federation until 1967, which, of course, was the time of the constitutional referendum. My understanding was that the commonwealth law was changed by Sir Robert Menzies—probably still Robert Menzies at that stage—in 1961, when the commonwealth legislation was changed to enable Indigenous people to vote. The problem for them was that, not being recorded on any referendum, the likelihood of their actually knowing about their right to vote, etc., clearly did not come until 1967, when the referendum was passed to ensure that they were recognised as full Australian citizens. These are the sorts of things we need to tidy up.

The crux of the recognition is to ensure that we work well together, as I am sure we will do, to work out the best way to commemorate the 125^th anniversary. The legacy of the centenary, which is recognised by the tapestries here in this chamber, is one about which there was very significant celebration. Certainly, from my direct knowledge, the Hon. Jennifer Cashmore and the Hon. Diana Laidlaw were two from our side of politics who were very active to ensure that we celebrated it well. We have proper recognition here with these tapestries and, for as long as there is breath in me in this place, I will be fighting to make sure that they stay here.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: And you will be helped.

Ms CHAPMAN: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I am really pleased that we are here in the presence of the lovely Mrs Joyce Steele in her Versace blue, who was, of course, the first woman elected to parliament in 1959, together with Mrs Jessie Cooper in the Legislative Council. Mrs Cooper's elevation was somewhat frustrated by challenges in the Supreme Court, but nevertheless she lived to fight the day and became a member. We amended the state constitution to make sure that type of challenge could not occur again.

I am very pleased that we have done this before properly. We have good precedent from women representatives here in the parliament on both sides of the spectrum. Indeed, I think it is fair to say that Sandra Kanck, for example, was active in this space, and there are a number of significant women who have ensured that we recognise this properly. To honour them alone, we should make sure that we celebrate appropriately in 2019. Although I accept that the Legislative Council is an entirely different group, I would like to see some recognition of Mrs Jessie Cooper somewhere on their side of the parliament—as the first woman representative in the Legislative Council.

Finally, in relation to the unions—and I will have much more to say about this—the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of South Australia, established prior to the passage of the legislation, was very active in this field, together with its sub-branch, the Women's Suffrage League. Subsequent to the passage of the legislation, considerable work was done by the women's league, which was established in 1895, to take advantage of the fact that there had been an enfranchisement of women. Its role, which operated for about two years, was to make sure that women were politically educated so that they were able to make an intelligent contribution to the political process.

There are a lot of pioneering women in this space who have worked hard for the inaugural legislation, and many have faced some significant obstacles to make sure that we are represented here in the parliament and that we are able to celebrate enfranchisement, which is absolutely critical and part of our very important and proud history of South Australia, as the first parliament in the world to recognise the right of women to stand for parliament.

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (17:03): I support the motion that has been put forward by minister Bettison as the Minister for the Status of Women, and I also endorse the comments that have been made by the deputy leader.

To add to the discussion, I had the honour of being involved in the 100-year celebration; it does date me, but I was involved in the arrangements for that. As the deputy leader has said, Jennifer Cashmore and Diana Laidlaw were certainly significant contributors to making sure that this was as open a process as possible. I would also like to pay tribute to Sandra Kanck, Anne Levy and Carolyn Pickles. Heather Southcott also contributed, and she was also involved in a number of other women's organisations, including the United Nations women's organisation. There has been quite a list of women.

I have one of the publications from the 1994 campaign, A Woman's Place: CelebratingWomen in Politics 1894-1994. Mrs Jessie Cooper was the first woman to be elected to the Legislative Council in 1959 and Joyce Steele joined her in 1959 also. Joyce Steele was the first woman minister in South Australia.

I would like to pay tribute to our Labor first woman in the House of Assembly, Molly Byrne OAM, and note that she held the seats of Barossa (I certainly would like to talk to the member for Schubert about the sterling job she did in the seat of the Barossa), Tea Tree Gully and Todd. Like the deputy leader, I would like to see not only Jessie Cooper celebrated in some way in the Legislative Council (although I am not in that house, so really would be in their purview) but it would be nice to see Molly Byrne acknowledged in this house in some way as well.

I will close my remarks today because I think there is agreement in the house on this motion. I note and remind people that more women have gone into space as astronauts than have been members in this parliament. It seems a pretty damning statistic that more women have become astronauts and gone into space than have (people might say 'lucky for them') come into either of our houses in the South Australian parliament. There is certainly room for improvement, and I hope that by adopting this motion we will encourage both men and women to think about how we will celebrate that we have universal suffrage and, as the deputy leader said, certainly acknowledge the great contribution of the first South Australians.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (17:06): Before I put the motion, I thank the minister for bringing it to the house and acknowledge her commitment to the quasquicentenary, which is what we shall refer to it as from now on.

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Quasquicentenary—it is actually quite easy; I will speak to you later about it. Each point in the motion is vitally important. I commend the motion to the house under the gaze of Catherine Helen Spence, Mary Lee and, of course, Elizabeth Webb Nicholls and her role and that of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in collecting 8,500 of the 11,000 signatures on our monster petition, which has not been given the prominence it needs to have been given.

Also, under the gaze of Joyce Steele, I look forward to working with those preparing for what I hope will be a year of fantastic celebrations and commemorations, similar to those about to get underway in the UK, under the banner in Westminster of Vote 100, which will recognise the significant contribution of many women, among them South Australia's own Muriel Matters, who was, of course, the first woman to speak in the House of Commons.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (17:07): Before I close the debate, I commend those women who did so much for not just their generation but the many generations that have followed. They are a source of inspiration to all of us.

In my portfolio of recreation and sport in particular, where we are trying to get a level playing field for girls and for women, it is nice to be able to point back to 1894 and to the great work done by these pioneers. They went out there, stuck to their guns and fought and fought for the monumental changes to our democracy here in South Australia that then transcended most parts of the world, although some places still have not caught up. We have a real problem in South Australia with the conditions we have for girls and women at sporting clubs, where they have to change in their cars, behind bushes or in offices rather than in proper change rooms.

It is something the government addressed in last year's budget, and we know that we have more work to do, but $10 million for those women's change rooms is a good start. There is also a concerted effort to ensure we have 50 per cent membership of government boards made up of women. In the area of sport, we have introduced a policy where sporting bodies and associations have, as part of their committee memberships, at least 40 per cent women, so it is a 40:40:20 rule: 40 per cent women, 40 per cent men and 20 per cent can be made up of men or women.

As we go about our work in 2017 and think about what is the right thing to do, we look back at those people who were part of the suffrage campaign and thank them for the momentum that they started. To think that 125 years later it is still going and that we will be celebrating is terrific. I thank the house for its support and commend the motion.

Motion carried.