Beasley, Ms M.C.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (14:04): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: I rise to pay tribute to Mary Constance Beasley AM, the first South Australian and the first Australian woman to be appointed to the role of Commissioner for Equal Opportunity. Mary Beasley was a trailblazer in many fields, and it is right that we acknowledge her legacy in this place.

Mary Beasley was born in 1933 in Glenelg and was educated at St Peter's Girls' School, graduating with honours in the leaving certificate. It appears that she was always set on forging her own path in life, her first job being in marketing with the Vacuum Oil Company (later Mobil). She left this role and spent time in Sydney, following her marriage at 19 years of age. The marriage, however, did not last and Mary Beasley returned to Adelaide with her two-month-old son, Richard.

On returning to Adelaide, Mary Beasley re-entered the workforce in 1968 with an employment agency, rising through the ranks to the role of general manager. Her leadership at the employment agency and her two terms on the Unley council gave Mary Beasley the confidence to apply for the position of South Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner. In 1975, she was appointed the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity, a national first as a South Australian and a woman. In 1978, she was promoted by Premier Don Dunstan to commissioner on the Public Service Board.

Continuing her string of firsts, Mary Beasley was the first woman director on the Qantas board and in 1985 became South Australian Ombudsman. She was appointed by premiers of both major parties as Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, then chief executive of the industrial relations department, and finally chief executive officer of the information technology workforce strategy office.

Mary Beasley unsuccessfully tried to join the all-male board of the Port Adelaide Football Club, but was a founder of its Women in Power. She chaired the boards of the Australian Dance Theatre and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, as well as heading the 1994 South Australian Women's Suffrage Centenary Committee, with the late Hon. Jennifer Cashmore AM as her deputy.

Mary Beasley was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2004 for service to the public sector administration in South Australia and to the community, particularly as an executive member of organisations in the fields of the arts, education, health and community celebrations.

Mary Beasley was a person of great strength and tenacity. I acknowledge Mary Beasley's years of service to our community and I extend my sincere condolences to her family, friends and loved ones, in particular her son, Richard. I know she will be missed, although her impressive and nationally significant legacy will live on. Mary Beasley was many firsts as a South Australian and a woman, for which we are all thankful, paving the way for many other women to represent their communities and hold positions of leadership. Vale Mary Constance Beasley.