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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (28 June) . . Page.. 2106 ..

MS CARNELL

Throughout her life Judith fought passionately for issues close to her heart. She was untiring and passionate in her support for Aboriginal reconciliation, the environment, peace, and issues affecting Australian writers. An indication of the commitment to indigenous issues was recently evidenced by her participation in the reconciliation march held in Canberra on a bitterly cold winter's day at a time when she was quite unwell. I am sure all members who were part of that walk would remember just how cold that day was.

Judith was an inspirational writer and a poet of extraordinary insight and passion. Her writing struck a cord with generations, and I am certain that she will be remembered as one of Australia's most outstanding writers.

Judith donated her property, Edge, near Braidwood to the Australian National University, which in turn donated it to the Duke of Edinburgh Award. It now remains a lasting legacy of her life as a writer's retreat.

I am sure all members will join with me in expressing our sympathy to Judith Wright's daughter, Meredith-Anne, and her friends and colleagues, and in acknowledging the outstanding contribution Judith Wright made to Australian cultural life.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition): I join with the Chief Minister in this motion. Judith Wright was born on a station near Armidale in New England, New South Wales, to a pastoralist family. From the old stockman Dan's tales of the early days of the district and later from the diaries of her grandfather, Albert Wright, came the stories that filled much of her early writing. In 1943 she moved to work at the University of Queensland where she met and married J.P. McKinney, a writer and philosopher.

Judith Wright was a prolific poet, literary critic, anthologist, editor, children's writer, short story writer, supporter of the Aboriginal land rights cause and an active conservationist. She won many awards for her writing, including the Grace Leven Prize twice, the Britannica-Australia award, the Christopher Brennan Award, and the ASAN World Prize for Poetry. In 1992 she received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, the first Australian to receive the award.

Judith Wright's passionate advocacy for indigenous Australians was given voice through her writing. In an essay for the Tasmanian wilderness calendar in 1981 she expressed the rationale behind her defence of indigenous Australians with these words:

Judith Wright was an ardent supporter of the reconciliation movement in Australia right up until her death. Over the last 10 years her poems of social protest became more frequent, more emphatic and sharper in their condemnation of the various ills that torment our country.

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