Page 1708 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020
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MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (10.48): On behalf of the ACT Greens, it is with great sadness that I join my Assembly colleagues in expressing my sincere condolences on the sudden and tragic death of Sue Salthouse, a fierce and determined advocate for women with disabilities and many other causes.
As we all know, Sue was our current ACT Senior Australian of the Year. She was Canberra Citizen of the Year in 2015, was given the 2015 ACT Chief Minister’s inclusion award for advancing human rights and was the ACT Senior Woman of the Year in 2014. These awards recognised her resolute efforts to bring about social change. Being the humble woman that she was, I am sure she had no idea of the breadth of the positive impact that she had in our local community, in our nation and across the world, despite these awards, always expressing that there was more work to do.
This condolence motion pays our final respects to her for a life well and truly lived. While she may not be here to hear it, I hope that her family and friends take comfort in knowing that she was a vital and integral contributor to making this world, this nation and this city a better place to live in. Just last month, Sue was encouraging nominations for the next Australian of the Year awards, saying, in her own words:
This is our chance to recognise our fellow Aussies, who are contributing to the community just because they see a need and because making a difference for fellow Aussies is what we do.
That post was accompanied by a photo of a woman in a wheelchair, with the wording “This is what determination looks like” across the image. The woman, of course, was Sue. It was a picture and a post that best captured her and her essence.
Sue made a difference because she saw a need. That is what she did, and she was determined in doing it. After surviving a life-defining fall from a horse in 1995, Sue became a fierce advocate for women with disabilities, realising that they were often not at decision-making tables and therefore not considered, and that their issues were not well understood. She understood, too, the intersecting of women’s lives and worked hard to address the lack of housing security, affordability and accessibility for women with disabilities. She highlighted their high vulnerability to exploitation and abuse, the need for disability friendly and accessible information and the lack of not only women leaders but women leaders with disability, among other issues. Her input ranged from local to national and international levels.
Sue backed her arguments with evidence. She saw the need for gender disaggregation of data and was quite the expert at understanding and analysing it. In 2010 she received an Edna Ryan award for her outstanding contribution to feminist community activism. I am told that she was thrilled with this award, as it was a mainstream award acknowledging her feminism, not her disability.
Sue was active right up to her sudden passing. On World Elder Abuse Awareness Day last month, ANROWS, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, featured a message from her about the need for better protection for the aged
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