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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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MURIEL MATTERS

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:27): I strive never to disappoint you, sir. Last night saw the naming of the winners of the South Australian of the Year Awards for 2013. My congratulations go to the winners and to everybody nominated in any of the categories. Local Hero winner is Dean Walker from Coober Pedy for this work in his community, and the Young South Australian of the Year is engineer Julian O'Shea. Senior South Australian of the Year is long-time campaigner for all things natural, Dr Barbara Hardy AO, and South Australian of the Year is long-time community activist and local government advocate, Felicity-ann Lewis. Every nominee strives to make the world a better place and exhibits the power of one.

The wonderful Barbara and Felicity-ann are women I have known and admired for many years—each the sort of woman who could be described as a modern-day Muriel Matters. It is fitting that the awards were announced last night, as 12 November is the birth date of Muriel Matters, one of South Australia's most inspirational women. She was born 136 years ago in the fledgling township of Bowden, and it was no mistake, Adelaide in South Australia produced such a citizen of the world and an agent for change. I have come to know Muriel's life story, and the more I learn about her the more I am convinced that the lessons of her story, her history, have much to offer.

The docudrama Muriel Matters! has been selected for the Cork Film Festival this week, following on from its premiere in the recent Adelaide Film Festival. The international premiere in Ireland is significant, as Muriel was heavily involved there during the 1913 Dublin strikes and lockout of workers. It is hoped that more of her story there will become known through this exposure. Muriel's story is connected to so many aspects of contemporary life that it underlines the pressing need for a place where exhibits can be displayed and provide education and prompt debate on issues as varied as why voting is important and how every person can influence how we all live.

On Monday, we honoured the fallen and the commitment of those who served. There are many stories of courage, from the Boer War to Afghanistan, and Muriel's family felt loss with the death of Charles Matters, the brother who died in Gallipoli in August 1915, just a few weeks after he landed. As a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom prior to World War I, Muriel proclaimed the futility of war and worked to prevent it and then end it.

Yesterday, the member for Ashford hosted a meeting for World AIDS Day. This is an important health issue, where prevention is better than cure and where complacency seems to have set in because research has given us a drug to prolong the life of HIV-positive people. Heterosexual relationships are the major risk in transmitting the disease, and STIs have a correlation with the feminist movement of the 1860s in the United Kingdom, where the Contagious Diseases Act was a catalyst for action. Health issues remained one of the things that Muriel's contemporaries struggled to improve because women and children fared so poorly in those days.

Other uncomfortable issues, such as domestic violence, continue to be a focus and more needs to be done. There is room for leadership, especially from men and women in positions of power to urge and deliver more. One-third of women over the age of 15 have experienced physical abuse, with one in five over 15 having experienced some sort of sexual abuse. Victims and perpetrators need services to remedy their circumstances and learn new behaviours, and family violence must be something that we end for everybody's sake.

Prison reform was high on Muriel's list of causes. She was gaoled for her beliefs and learnt firsthand that people in custodial institutions need compassion and assistance to change their lives. Groups such as Seeds of Affinity here in Adelaide know, too, and are changing lives by providing opportunities for women newly released from prison. Their handmade soaps and other toiletries provide income and the opportunity to network while learning new skills. The Muriel Matters Society is proud to be associated with Seeds of Affinity.

Muriel and women of her time understood the value of early education—something we seem to have re-embraced in recent years. Here in South Australia, the de Lissa school has a proud tradition of early childhood learnings. Muriel's association with Montessori teaching saw her well placed to tour Australia in 1922 to promote and advocate the benefits of encouraging children to learn in new and innovative ways.

The provision of basic services was something she believed in passionately, access and equity similarly being a driving force for me and others here today. Muriel was an advocate for improving public housing and the benefits of new technologies. She was involved in the Women's Electrical Society, where she helped break down suspicion about the use of electrical appliances—an advance that at the time was viewed with scepticism.

Muriel decried sweatshops—so prominent a feature of her time and still, unfortunately, a scourge today. Recent catastrophic events in countries such as Bangladesh have these days made us focus on the origin of so many manufactured items, particularly our clothing. The sweatshops that exist here in Adelaide today—where piecework sees machinists making garments for very low wages—is a shame we must all work to uncover and eliminate.

Muriel was a thinker and an activist who used her skill as an artist to capture attention and garner support to enact change for the better. Her interest in participatory democracy is a prompt for us today to engage in wider debate on how voting works so that every vote is valued and used to the best advantage. Following the recent federal election, there is no better time to begin that discussion, where we know the use of preferences has become a much talked about facet of our voting system.

As we strive to serve our communities in this place and more widely by the example we set in all we do and the high standards we strive to uphold, let's remember and build on the work of those who have gone before us, using their example not so much to reinvent the wheel but to make sure that the wheel turns more efficiently in delivering good policy and opportunity for all.

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