Transcript
To Maxine and to former Premier Joan Kirner and Mary Delahunty who’s here today and guests ladies and gentlemen. Can I just say how fantastic the petition looks here today, the thousands and thousands of signatures that are on it, it’s so impressive when you walk up here this morning to see that and to know that there are now more than 30,000 women who have signed the petition across the state and that’s a fantastic achievement and well done on that, fantastic. [clapping]
[footage of a giant petition on the steps of Parliament House, the Premier walks up the steps between sections]
Now just a couple of notes about the history, 1891 the Premier of the day James Monroe said that he would introduce the bill for women’s suffrage, if women demonstrated the right to vote and in just six weeks more than 30,000 Victorians had signed that petition for that right and the monster petition was 260 metres long, it had to be carried up the steps by several attendants and it was then tabled in the legislative assembly and I don’t think we have had a petition that large again, and this one won’t need to be tabled which is good news. [laughter]
Now one of the 30,000 signatories one of those suffragists, was a woman from Smith Street in Melbourne, and her name was Augustine Ayer and she is my Great Grandmother [claps]. Yeah I have confirmed that over the weekend with my mother so Augustine Ayer lived in Collingwood, she lived in Smith Street and she’s my mother’s Grandmother and my mother said she had strong views about these issues and that it would have been very likely that she signed the petition and it just shows I guess the links that go back through so many families about what was a fundamental right and a fundamental issue for women to address back in that period and Victoria really led the way and the petition that had been signed at the time, the 30,000 I’m really delighted that my Great Grandmother my maternal Great Grandmother signed that petition.
The fact that suffragists had to fight for so long to win for their rights in Victoria, longer than any other state was certainly and indictment of the old legislative council, and this was the council of 1898 invited a delegation of 300 suffragists to see it’s president and then made the wait for 45 minutes while the MP’s had after dinner drinks.
[footage of the Premier signing the petition]
I’m pleased to say that these are very different days in our Parliament, I’m please to say that Victoria now leads Australia in terms of the rights that we provide for women in our state and I’m certainly delighted today to add my name to a petition that my Great Grandmother signed 117 years ago, and to Maxine and Joan and to all involved, very well done and a great effort.
Maxine Morand -Minister for Women’s Affairs
It has been a fantastic celebration this year, the centenary of women’s suffrage and on the 18th of November this year it’ll mark the 100 years since women got to vote. But on reflecting on that we also need to reflect on the journey that women have taken through the Parliament over the last 100 years and although women got the vote in 1908 it wasn’t until 1933 that the first woman was elected to Parliament, 1937 the first woman at a general election. And think about this when Pauline Toner was elected in 1979 there had only been five women in Parliament before her, and then of course Joan Kirner was our first and only female Premier, but today we do have 30% of women are in the Parliament today, and another statistic that I only learnt last week Premier which I think is also going to surprise you is that of over the 150 years of this Parliament the number of men that have been elected to this Parliament totals 1658, the number of women that have been elected and walked the corridors of this Parliament is only 95, so we have only come along way really in recent times and that’s something that is a credit to you and others like you who are supporting women in Parliament and supporting women getting into cabinet, so it has been a fantastic celebration and now we look forward to the next 100 years of womens participation in Victorian Parliament.