The Australian Women's Register

Reba Meagher has been a Minister in the Carr and Iemma Labor governments of New South Wales. She was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Cabramatta in the 1994 by election. She gained re-election in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007. During this time Reba was appointed Minister for Fair Trading, and Minister assisting the Minister for Commerce (2003-2005) and Minister for Youth and Minister for Community Services in 2005. She retired from the New South Wales Parliament on 17 September 2008.

Marie Morris ran for election to parliament twice, both times as an Australia Party candidate. She stood for election to the House of Representatives seat of Phillip in 1975 and for the seat of Maroubra in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1976.

Marjorie Valmai Pennington was a Liberal Party candidate in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly elections for Bligh in 1976 and Canterbury in 1978. She was married to Dennis Pennington, and had three children.

Barbara Perry was a successful candidate, who was elected the first time she ran for Parliament as an ALP candidate in the 2001 by-election for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Auburn. Barbara was re-elected in 2003, 2007 and 2011. She left Parliament in March 2015 after serving as a minister in previous Labor Governments. Prior to entering state politics she was a Councillor with the Auburn Council (1995-2003).

Mairi Petersen is widely known and respected in the labor movement, particularly in Illawarra. She stood as an ALP candidate in the following elections:
New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Bligh in 1976.
House of Representatives for Wentworth in 1975.
City of Shellharbour Council in 1995.

Emily Renshaw was well known throughout the central west of New South Wales. She was Alderman of the Parkes Municipal Council from 1956-59, 1962-65 and 1971-74. She was also an ALP candidate in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly elections for Dubbo in 1973 and for the NSW Senate in 1975.

Mrs Mary Jamieson Williams was a pioneer of the women’s movement and a staunch temperance worker. She ran for election to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of North Shore in 1925 as an Independent.

Sabina Greenman was a successful alderman for the Leichhardt Municipal Council from 1956-59. She ran once for election to parliament in the unwinnable seat of Balmain in the 1959 New South Wales Legislative Assembly. She was an early member of the Liberal Party. Sabina was also campaign director for Elton Lewis in 1954 for the Federal seat of Martin and in 1958 for the seat of Dalley. Sabina Greenman was married to Charles Greenman, with whom she had a daughter, Kathleen. She was a great grandmother at the time of her campaign in 1959, when Elton Lewis was her campaign director.

A pioneer for women doctors and a tireless committee-woman, Lucy Gullett was inspired by the success of the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital in Melbourne to found a hospital run by women for women. The Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children, as it became, opened in 1922. Gullett was also a one-time candidate (Independent) for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of North Sydney in 1932.

Susan Harben was a prominent figure in the Gay and Lesbian community. She ran for election as an ALP candidate for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Bligh in 1995.

Marion Hearnshaw was a wife and mother whose life was inextricably connected to politics and social action. She was a Liberal Party candidate in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly elections for Parramatta in 1962 and an Independent in the 1965 Eastwood elections.

Meredith Henderson only ran for election once, but she continues to promote the protection of the environment. She represented the Australian Greens in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly elections for Wollongong in 2003.

Katrina Ann Hodgkinson was a National candidate in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly by-election for Southern Highlands in 1996. In 1999 and then again in 2003 she was successfully elected to the Burrinjuck seat in the NSW Legislative Assembly. She was re-elected in 2007 and 2011. She was appointed Minister for Primary Industries in 2011, the first woman to hold that position in New South Wales. An electoral redistribution before the 2015 election meant that she stood for and won the new seat of Cootamundra. She resigned from Parliament in 2017. At the 2019 federal election she contested, unsuccessfully, the seat of Gilmore in New South Wales.

After leaving Parliament she was the National Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Australia’s Academic and Research Network, was on the Board of the Australian Rail Track Corporation for several years, and served on other boards in sectors ranging from mining to philanthropy, property, and small business.

A complete record of her parliamentary service can be found on the New South Wales Parliament site (see link below).

A trade union and ALP stalwart, Veronica Husted contested the following elections:
House of Representatives, Dundas, 1987
New South Wales Legislative Assembly, South Coast 1991
New South Wales Legislative Assembly, South Coast 1995

Dorothy Isaksen joined the ALP 1954 and was on the ALP Youth Council Executive from 1957 to 1958. She became the first woman organiser of the NSW ALP and was on the party’s Central Executive 1970-71, and the Administration Committee 1976-79. She was President of the Labor Women’s Committee 1973-79 and was President, then Secretary of the National Labor Women’s Committee 1975-79. She ran for Wakehust in 1968 and was then elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council for the balance of the term of the Hon. Deirdre Grusovin. She was re-elected in 1990. From April 1995 to the end of her term in 1999, she was Government whip in the Legislative Council. She was a member of the Board of the Royal North Shore Hospital 1977-1986 and was Deputy Chairperson of the New South Wales Women’s Advisory Council 1976-78. Isaksen was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2018 Australia Day Honours, for ‘significant service to the Parliament of New South Wales, as an advocate for gender equality in politics, as a mentor, and to the community’.

Dorothy Isaksen was married to Neville (died 24 June 2002) and they had two daughters.

Malinda Ivey stood for election unsuccessfully more times than any other woman in the history of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. She was an Independent candidate in the following elections:
New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Balmain in 1941, 1947 and 1950.
House of Representatives for West Sydney in 1940,1943 and 1946.
House of Representatives for Martin in 1949 and 1951.
In 1944 Malinda stood as a Democratic Party candidate in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Balmain. She was well known amongst many Sydney women’s organizations. At the time of her death, she has been honorary State Secretary of the NSW Returned Servicemen’s League Central Council of Women’s Auxiliaries for some time.

Beverly Job only ran for election once: as an Independent in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly elections for Wakehurst in 1962. She married Cecil Job.

Danielle Jones only ran once for election – that was in the 2003 New South Wales Legislative Assembly elections for Kiama. She still continues her interest and work in politics. In 2005 she was on the electorate staff of Joanna Gash, MHR. At the time of her campaign in 2003, she was studying Financial administration/Law, while running her Falls Café at Fitzroy Falls. She had previously managed Ranelagh House Guest House at Robertson for 10 years. Danielle Jones was educated at St Catherine’s College, Waverley and Frensham School, Mittagong. She holds an advertising/marketing diploma and a marketing certificate.

Virginia Judge was a successful local and state ALP politician and was the first woman to be elected for the seat of Strathfield in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 2003. She was re-elected in 2007, but was defeated at the 2011 election.

She was a Councillor with the Strathfield Municipal Council from 1995-2004 and Mayor from 2001-03.

Liz Kernohan represented the people of Camden on Camden council and in the New South Wales Parliament for more than 30 years. She was first elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Camden in 1991 when she stood as a Liberal Party candidate. Elizabeth gained re-election in 1995 and 1999. She was first appointed a Councillor of the Camden Municipal Council in March 1973 and was re-elected from 1974 -1991 and again in 2004. Liz Kernohan was also Deputy Mayor in 1974-1977 and 1981-1984, and Mayor in 1980 and 1985-1991. She died in October 2004.

Kris Klugman was a one-time candidate (New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Northcott, 1978), and has contributed to public and cultural life as a board member on numerous cultural and other institutions, as well as being a published economic historian. In 1987 she was appointed an OAM for service to education and to the social welfare of the community.

In 2003, and with her long time partner, Bill Rowlings, she co-founded and became inaugural President of Civil Liberties Australia, a national organisation started in Canberra ACT but with later strong local representation in Tasmania, WA, and NT particularly where earlier local civil liberties groups had collapsed. She and Rowlings co-authored an online history, Civil Liberties in Australia, published progressively in 2018-20 on the website www.cla.asn.au. Kris regards her work for civil liberties as the most important in her lifetime.

Maureen Lane is an outstanding health worker and an active local politician. As a member of the ALP since 1976, she was their candidate in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly elections for Ballina in 1991. That same year she was elected a Councillor of the Ballina Shire Council (1991-1992).

Kylie Laurence was appointed New South Wales State Coordinator for the Family First Party in 2005.

Cheryl Lawrence-Rowe was a once only candidate (ALP) in an unwinnable seat (New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Lane Cove, 1995). She was born in Bowral but grew up on the North Shore of Sydney. She was educated at St Kevin’s Eastwood Primary School, Brigidine College, St Ives and Monte Sant’Angelo College North Sydney. Cheryl Lawrence-Rowe graduated from the University of Sydney with a BA. From 1986 she taught Modern History at Monte Sant’ Angelo, where she was the Secretary of the Independent Teachers Association branch.

Leellen Lewis was a once only candidate who represented the ALP in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly elections for Myall Lakes in 1995.

Nance Loney, a once only candidate (ALP, New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Vaucluse, 1981), took an active part in matters of politics and public policy as a member of  the New South Wales Labor Party and activist groups such as Citizens for Democracy, the Labor Women’s Conference, the nuclear non-proliferation movement, Eastern Suburbs Friends of the ABC and Labor for Refugees.

Olwyn Bernice Mackenzie was Alderman in the Ryde Municipal Council from 1968-71 and in the Bellingen Shire Council from 1985-91. In between these two stints in local politics she ran as an Independent in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly elections for Eastwood in 1971.