Victorian Women's Suffrage Bill (Dr Maloney) 1894
- There were 19 private members bills between 1889 and 1908 relating to the granting of suffrage to Victorian women. Dr William Maloney introduced several of them, including one in 1889 and the Victorian Women's Suffrage Bill (Dr Maloney) 1894.
- In terms of the passage of the actual bills through Parliament, the key records that exist are printed records, such as Hansard, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly/Papers Presented to Parliament, and the Minutes of the Legislative Council.
- PROV maintains an extensive series of Original Papers tabled in both houses of the Victorian Parliament and other series (refer to VPRS 3253 for papers tabled in the Legislative Assembly and VPRS 2599 for papers tabled in the Legislative Council). With one exception, however, both series hold little in relation to these early bills that adds to the printed records.
- The one exception is significant: the petitions submitted in support of the bills and recorded as tabled in the Votes and Proceedings/Minutes. The so-called Monster Petition, tabled in response to the 1889 Bill, is one of the Original Papers tabled in the Legislative Assembly (VPRS 3253/P0, Unit 851). This was the Women's Suffrage Petition, containing 30,000 signatures, presented to the Victorian Parliament by the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Victorian Temperance Alliance, in 1891.
- A minor petition tabled in support of the 1899 Victorian Women's Suffrage Bill (Sir George Turner) is located in the Original Papers tabled in the Legislative Council (VPRS 2599/P0, Unit 189) and another 14 petitions tabled in support of the 1900 Bill are located in VPRS 2599/P0, Units 193 and 194. Special note should be made with respect to Unit 193, which contains 6 petitions that appear to total nearly 20,000 signatures, one of which appears to account for 15,671 signatures. Even more significantly, almost all of the petitions in Units 193 and 194 are petitions signed by women who were against universal suffrage. In another example, the PROV listing reveals another two boxes of petitions tabled in the Assembly in 1895; VPRS 3253/P0, Unit 837 contains 13 petitions with 5,118 signatures, while Unit 838 contains 14 petitions containing at least 6,124 more.
- NOTE: Requests for access to records of the Victorian Parliament must be referred to the Clerk of the Papers for the Legislative Council or the Legislative Assembly as required. Written approval must be presented to PROV before the records will be made available for public inspection.
- No Parliamentary Counsel Bill file could be located in VPRS 10265 for the Adult Suffrage Act. The inwards correspondence files of the Premier's Department, the Chief Secretary's Department and possibly the Law Department may include papers relating to the bills. The indexes and registers to the correspondence received by these departments should be consulted, as all three correspondence systems may yield many items in relation to suffrage generally. Also note VPRS 1177 (Reports of Deputations) which consists of copies of reports of deputations to the Premier during the period 1887-1920, including some relating to suffrage.
First women elected to Victorian Parliament
- Lady Millie Peacock was the first woman elected (in a by-election) to Victorian Parliament (1933-35) and Ivy Lavinia Weber was the first woman elected in a general election (1937-43).
- Lady Millie Peacock was MLA for Allandale from late November 1933 to1 February 1935. She made only one speech in the house during this time, relating to the Factories and Shops Bill. The most productive way of tracking down any documents she may have created during her brief time as an MLA is to consult subject headings relating to Parliament within the various indexes or registers to the main correspondence filing systems of the departments in existence at that time.
- In contrast to the case of Lady Peacock, it is likely that PROV holds many items relating to Ivy Lavinia Weber, given the period of time Weber served as MLA for Nunawading and her wide range of interests. Prior to her election Ms Weber was involved in a number of women's organisations. Refer to the general comments on finding records relating to women's issues in PROV.
Women's Advisory Office established in April 1976
This example demonstrates the need to determine where departments sit administratively in order to locate records about them, and that researching government organisations is not always straightforward!
- PROV does not hold records created by the Office. According to a response to a question in Parliament in 1976, the Premier stated that the Office was established after a recommendation made by the Victorian Committee on the Status of Women, probably in 1975. The Committee recommended that a section be set up in the Community Services Centre in Collins Street, where women could receive advice about their problems. The position was supposedly filled by normal public service procedures yet neither the Office nor Ms Penny Ryan (the first officer) was identified in the Victorian civil service lists for 1976 or 1977.
- The probably sources are the Premier's Department (most likely VPRS 7614, General Correspondence files for the period 1972-76) or the Public Service Board. Administratively, the Office may have been placed within the Social Welfare Department; however, PROV does not hold records for this particular area at present.
Victorian Advisory Council on the Status of Women established in 1981
This example demonstrates that government agencies are prone to frequent name changes, and you must track these changes, along with the movement of functions (responsibilities) forwards and backwards through time, to locate records.
- This body was renamed the Victorian Women's Advisory Council in 1983, and then the Victorian Women's Consultative Council (VWCA) in 1986. It appears that the VWCA was re-established as the Victorian Women's Council (VWC) when the Office of Women's Policy was created in 1992. It also appears that the VWC was abolished around 2000.
- PROV does not yet hold records created by the Victorian Women's Council, which should include the records of its predecessors mentioned here. It is more than likely that these records are under the control of the Office of Women's Policy, which provided administrative support to the VWC and VWCA. There should also be records within the correspondence filing systems of the Premier's Department, the Justice Department and the Department of Victorian Communities, but these have, in the main, either not yet been transferred to PROV or are closed to public inspection.