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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 80 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

argument to extend minimum pay rates to women. Ever tireless, she was active even this past year, attempting to stem the tide of conservatism that is trying to pull back the achievements women have made over the past two decades. Edna was an author and was still writing up to her death. She is reported to have moved from her home to a nursing hostel so that she had more time to pursue her writing.

Edna was also a Labor Party stalwart. She was made a life member of the Australian Labor Party in 1987, and recognised in the same way by the ACT branch last year. Edna was an example of what the conservative parties in Australia will never experience - people who have sacrificed and struggled for a cause; people who have striven through hardship, discrimination and difficulties to advance the position of their fellow citizens. I am proud that Edna Ryan was a member of the Labor Party. Edna was a driving light for many women and men in the Australian Labor Party, and I do not exaggerate when I say she was a driving light for many people outside the labour movement who, like her, refuse to accept inequality in our society.

The legacy Edna leaves is very great. The achievements that she owns are many. If there ever is a women's history of Australia written, someone like Edna Ryan will take up several chapters. The legacy Edna leaves someone like me is the fact that, whatever achievements people like Edna have made in the past, those achievements and advances can so easily be ripped away by a concerted conservative attack. Equity in the workplace is more than just equal pay. Equity means access to training and superannuation, recognition of women's work in the home and in the community, access to affordable and quality child care - and the list goes on. Our legacy is to defend what has been achieved, to never be satisfied and to always be vigilant. I am proud to have known Edna Ryan, and I express my condolences to her family.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister): Edna Ryan was born in 1904 in very humble circumstances. Her farewell, following her death in Canberra on 10 February this year, attracted politicians, judges, academics and activists - achievers, all touched by this remarkable woman. Edna Ryan was a lifelong campaigner for women's rights and social justice. She worked through the union movement and, in the 1970s, the Women's Electoral Lobby, along with people such as Senator Jocelyn Newman and many other women from all sides of politics who felt very strongly that women's rights in politics had not been seen by the establishment.

She was a lifelong member of the Australian Labor Party. She led the push for women into politics. She stood unsuccessfully for a State seat in Mosman in 1953; so she was really up there giving it a go in the very early days, which is great to see. She served in local government as an alderman and as deputy mayor of the Fairfield Council between 1956 and 1965.

The women of Australia must thank Edna Ryan for equal pay. She pursued this ideal through the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in the 1970s, as Mr Whitecross has already told us. Her scholarship on the pay issue and working women is well demonstrated in her many articles and her books, such as Gentle Invaders, published in 1975, and Two-Thirds of a Man, published in 1984, which I suggest members read. Her efforts were further recognised by an honorary doctorate from the University of Sydney conferred a decade ago.

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