The Australian Women's Register

Jocelynne Scutt has worked consistently in her capacity as lawyer, activist and writer to improve the lives of women generally and by changing the laws on rape and domestic violence. She founded the feminist publisher, Artemis and was a member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in both Canberra and Sydney.

A graduate in law from the University of Western Australia in 1969, Scutt undertook postgraduate studies in law at the University of Sydney, Southern Methodist University and the University of Michigan in the United States, and Cambridge University in England. She has worked with the Australian Institute of Criminology and as director of research with the Legal and Constitutional Committee of the parliament of Victoria. From 1981-82 she worked at the Sydney Bar and then was Deputy Chairperson of the Law Reform Commission, Victoria. In 1986 she returned to private practice in Melbourne. She served as the first Anti-Discrimination Commissioner of Tasmania from 1999-2004. In 2007 she accepted a judicial post on the Fiji High Court.

Scutt is a member of the UN Committee Against Trafficking, a International Alliance of Women (IAW) representative on International Criminal Court Coalition (ICC Coalition) and a board member of the Women’s History Network in the United Kingdom. She was called to the English Bar in 2014.

Jocelynne Scutt was interviewed by Nikki Henningham for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

Sue Walpole was appointed the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 1993, becoming well-known in the role. She assisted with education campaigns which were designed to make the Sex Discrimination Act more accessible and available to women. She held the position until 1997.

A member of the Country Liberal Party, Jodeen Carney was elected to the Northern Territory Assembly representing the electorate of Araluen in 2001. She was re-elected in 2005 and 2008. She held the position of Leader of the Opposition from 2005 until 2008.

Vanessa Goodwin is the Tasmanian Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Minister for Corrections, Minister for the Arts and Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council. She was elected to the Legislative Council as the Member for Pembroke in August 2009 and was the Shadow Attorney General and Shadow Minister for Corrections from September 2009 until the State Election in March 2014, after which she was appointed to her current roles.

Mai Ho arrived in Australia in December 1982 with two small daughters and sixteen dollars. By 1997 she was Mayor of Maribyrnong. Twelve months later her daughter, Tan Le, was voted Young Australian of the Year.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Annastacia Palaszczuk was elected to the Parliament of Queensland as Member for Inala in 2006. She was re-elected in 2009, 2012 and 2015. She was a minister in the Bligh government, but was elected Leader of the Opposition in March 2012 after the landslide defeat of the Labor Government. In January 2015 Annastacia Palaszczuk led the Labor Party to an unexpected victory and became the first woman to take a party from opposition into government when she became Premier on 14 February 2015.

Linda Lavarch was the first female lawyer elected to the Parliament of Queensland, Australia. In July 2005 she was appointed Minister for Justice and Attorney-General – the first woman to be Attorney-General in Queensland. As Attorney-General she oversaw the introduction of permanent drug courts in Queensland and the creation of the offence of identity theft. Retiring from state politics in 2009, Lavarch became involved in medical research and the not-for-profit sector, chairing the Not-For-Profit Sector Reform Council. Lavarch stood as the Labor candidate for the Queensland seat of Dickson in the 2016 Australian federal election.

Linda Lavarch was interviewed by Kim Rubenstein for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia since 1988, Michaelia Cash was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia as a Senator for Western Australia at the federal election held on 24 November 2007.

Cash was re-elected in 2013 and appointed a Minister in the new Liberal National Party government led by Tony Abbott. She holds the positions of Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women and Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.

A solicitor by profession, prior to her election to the Senate Cash worked at the law firm Freehills between 1999 and 2008. Her father, George Cash, served as a Liberal MP and MLC in the Western Australian state government for many years.

On the September 5, 2008, Quentin Bryce assumed the office of Governor-General of Australia, the twenty-fifth person to hold the office, but the first and only woman.

The appointment was the latest in a long line of ‘firsts’ for Bryce. A graduate from the University of Queensland with degrees in arts and law, she was one of the first Queensland women to be admitted to the Queensland Bar. In 1968 she became the first woman to be a faculty member of the Law school where she had studied. In 1984 she was appointed inaugural Director of the Queensland Women’s Information Service, Office of the Status of Women, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. In the period 1993 to 1996, she was founding Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the National Childcare Accreditation Council. In 2003, she became the second woman to be appointed to the position of Governor of Queensland. She has also served as Queensland director of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. In 1989 she became the Sex Discrimination Commissioner on the commission. And she was one of the first women to serve on the National Women’s Advisory Council, established by the commonwealth government in 1978.

From country stock, raised in a series of small towns scattered around central-west Queensland, Bryce was home schooled by her mother before being packed off to board at Brisbane’s Moreton Bay College, attending the University of Queensland subsequently. At university she reacquainted herself with an architecture student, Michael Bryce, whom she had first met as a nine-year- old. They started dating and married in 1964. They now have two daughters, three sons and five grandchildren.

Of his decision to recommend Quentin Bryce to the role of Governor-General, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2008 said:

It’s obvious that we needed to have a governor-general for Australia who captures the spirit of modern Australia, and the spirit of modern Australia is many things. Giving proper voice to people from the bush and the regions, giving proper voice to the rights of women, giving proper voice to the proper place of women in modern Australia and proper place to someone committed to the lives of, improving the lives for Indigenous Australians. These are all considerations in shaping my recommendation to her Majesty the Queen.

Of her own appointment as Governor-General, Quentin Bryce has remarked:

I grew up in a little bush town in Queensland of 200 people and what this day says to Australian women and to Australian girls is that you can do anything, you can be anything, and it makes my heart sing to see women in so many diverse roles across our country and Australia.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Marise Payne was appointed to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia, representing the state of New South Wales, in 1997. She was elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2007. She held various Shadow portfolios from December 2007 until September 2013, was Minister for Human Services (2013-15) and appointed Minister for Defence in September 2015.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Linda Kirk was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia representing South Australia in 2001. She served for one term only as she lost Party pre-selection for the 2007 federal election. She held the position of Deputy Opposition Leader in the Senate from July 2005 until February 2008. She retired from the Senate in June 2008. Before entering parliament, she served as a councillor on the Adelaide City Council from 1998-2000.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Penny Wong was elected as a Senator for South Australia in the Senate of the Australian Parliament in 2001. She was re-elected in 2007 and held the Ministerial portfolio of Climate Change and Water from December 2007 until August 2010. She held the portfolio of Finance and Deregulation from 2010. Wong was re-elected in 2013, and elected Leader of the Government in the Senate. Since the change of government in 2013, she has been Leader of the Opposition in the Senate – ‘the first woman to hold both of these roles’.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Connie Fierravanti-Wells was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia representing New South Wales in 2004. She was re-elected in 2010 for a six year term.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Jocelyn Newman served as a Senator for Tasmania in the Senate of the Australian Parliament from 1986 until 2002, when she resigned. She held the Ministerial portfolios in the Howard Government of Social Security from 1996-98; Family and Community Services from 1998-2001. She held the portfolio of Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women for two separate periods, from 1996-97 and from 1998-2001.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Belinda Neal was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as the Member for Robertson, New South Wales, in 2007. She was appointed to the Australian Senate in 1994, serving until 1998, when she resigned to contest the seat of Robertson in the House of Representatives. She was unsuccessful on that occasion. Before entering the federal political arena, she served in local government as Councillor for the Gosford City Council from 1991-95. She was not a candidate at the 2010 election as she lost pre-selection for the seat.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Melissa Parke was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as the Member for Fremantle, Western Australia, in 2007. She unsuccessfully contested the state seat of Mitchell at the 1996 election. Before entering the federal parliament she served as a lawyer with the United Nations from 1999 until 2007. She was re-elected in 2010.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Julie Bishop was elected to the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Australia as the Member for Curtin, Western Australia in 1998. She was re-elected in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013. During the period of the Howard Government her ministerial appointments included Ageing, Education, Science and Training, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women’s Issues. After the defeat of the Howard Government in November 2007, she was elected Deputy Leader of the Opposition and was a member of the Shadow Ministry. After the 2010 election, she retained the Deputy Leadership of the Opposition and was Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. On the election of the Coalition Government in September 2013, Bishop remained Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and became Minister for Foreign Affairs.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Kirsten Livermore was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as the Member for Capricornia, Queensland in 1998. She was re-elected in 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Vickie Chapman was elected to the seat of Bragg in the House of Assembly of the Parliament of South Australia at the election which was held on 9 February 2002. She was re-elected in 2006 and in 2010. She was Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2006-09. Educated at the Parndana Area School, Pembroke School and Adelaide University, Vickie ran her own small legal firm before entering Parliament.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Isobel Redmond was elected to the seat of Heysen in the House of Assembly of the Parliament of South Australia at the election, which was held on 9 February 2002. She was re-elected in 2006 and 2010. She was elected leader of the Opposition in July 2009.

Mary Rogers became the first woman councillor in Victoria when she was elected to the Richmond City Council in 1920. She was appointed as organiser for the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party.

Joan Rosanove completed her legal studies at the University of Melbourne, and was admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor in June 1919. In 1923 she became the first woman in Victoria to sign the Victorian Bar roll. The bulk of her work was in criminal and matrimonial cases. Rosanove was appointed Q.C. in 1965, and took silk in New South Wales two years later. She made a significant contribution to legal reform, particularly as it concerned the status of women.

Christian Brynhild Ochiltree Jollie-Smith studied law at the University of Melbourne, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1911. She was admitted as a barrister and solicitor by the Supreme Court of Victoria on 1 October 1912. She practiced as a solicitor in Melbourne from 1914, was appointed professional assistant in the Crown Solicitor’s Office, Melbourne.

Jollie-Smith was a foundation committee-member of the Communist Party of Australia. A socialist and member of the Communist Party, Jollie-Smith published the Australian Communist journal. Her own work, The Japanese Labour Movement, was published in 1919. After moving to Sydney, Jollie-Smith established her own successful legal practice. In 1924 she became the second woman admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales. Jollie-Smith mainly dealt with political and industrial cases, and championed the working class. She was often employed by trade unions, or by those engaged in anti-eviction disputes during the depression years. Jollie-Smith regularly contributed to the Communist publication, Workers’ Weekly, and to Tribune.

Sophie Mirabella was elected to the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Australia in 2001 as the Member for Indi. A member of the Liberal party of Australia, she was re-elected at the 2004, 2007 and 2010 federal elections. Before her election to Parliament she was a delegate to the Australian Constitutional Convention in 1998 and argued strongly against the proposal for Australia to become a republic. She was defeated at the 2013 election.

Kellie Tranter stood as an Independent candidate in the seat of Maitland in the Legislative Assembly at the New South Wales state election, which was held on 24 March 2007.

A councillor for the City of Sydney, Verity Firth stood as a candidate for the Australian Labor Party in the seat of Balmain at the New South Wales state election, which was held on 24 March 2007. She was elected and held the ministerial portfolios of Women, Science and Medical research. In addition she was Minister Assisting the Minister for Health ( Cancer) and Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change Environment and Water ( Environment). She was defeated at the 2011 election.

Liz Jackson was a multi-award winning journalist who came relatively late to the profession. After working as a lawyer, and then as a ‘femocrat’ in the New South Wales Public Service, at the age of thirty-three she turned her hand to journalism. In 2005 she became the first female host of ABC Television’s Media Watch program. She left the ABC in 2013.

Jackson passed away in 2018, having struggled with Parkinson’s Disease since she was diagnosed in 2014.