for Fiona Richardson: 'Tanja, she’s mad! Way too intense…..You’re too nice to work for her…', by Tanja Kovac - 2017

28 August 2017, Melbourne, Australia

Fiona Richardson MP was a Victorian ALP Minister for Women and the Prevention of Family Violence. She died relatively suddenly from cancer in August 2017. Tanja Kovac was her Chief of Staff. Tanja is National Co-Convenor of EMILY's List Australia, a financial, political and personal support network for progressive Labor women in Parliament.

I didn’t know Fiona Richardson MP before I went to work for her.

A respected and at times feared factional warrior from the Victorian Right, Fiona’s reputation as a fierce political operative preceded her. I understood the kind of tenacity and toughness it took to mix it with the faceless men of the ALP. Fiona had not only survived in that culture she had thrived. She’d even married into it, forming a formidable partnership with former Victorian ALP State Secretary Stephen Newnham.

A couple of days before taking a job as her Senior Advisor in the new Andrews Government, I bumped into Labor mates at the soccer who were shocked when I said I was going into her Ministerial Office.

“Tanja, she’s mad! Way too intense…..You’re too nice to work for her…”

At the same time I would later find out that Fiona was being told similar things. About me. "You can't employ her. She's a feminazi. She's in the Left!"

The more people warned us away; the more we gravitated to each other. Bad-ass bitches, she loved freaking people out whenever we strode together - Left/Right - on a mission.

She brought me in for gender and legal expertise to help manage her Women and Family Violence Prevention portfolios. I stayed and became her Chief because we found in each other a kindred spirit.

It’s one thing to be a Women’s Minister; yet another to invest in women while doing it. Fiona built an all woman Ministerial Office - a coven of witches - all deeply loyal to her. A passionate, pro-choice feminist, unafraid to speak her mind, I focussed on supporting her to be the best leader she could be.

It was a dream job. I wished I’d kept the note she wrote to me on my first day. "We’ll do this as a team”. And so we did. I regret that it took so long for us to find each other. I needed Fiona in my life earlier – a powerhouse political mentor and ally.

My greatest achievement as her Chief of Staff was to get her to finally accept my hugs and spontaneous praise whenever she gave an awesome speech or did something else amazing (which was often). She was a prickly pear, no doubt a physical manifestation of the family violence she had experienced as a child. I wore her down until she hugged me back. It's how I know the love was mutual.

We travelled to New Zealand and New York together to check out innovative family violence services while we waited for the Royal Commission into Family Violence to hand down its findings. We saw many things that inspired us on those trips. But we also had time to get to know each other. It felt very comfortable roaming the streets of a foreign place, talking about our families, kids and politics.

I discovered her eccentricities. The preference for barefeet, the secret love for all things spiritual. She didn't smoke. She didn't drink. She didn't eat meat. She'd fought breast cancer.

She was complex.

An intuitive, intellectual, innovative, ideas person.
A fearless, fearsome, fragile, factional warrior.
A loyal, loving, larrikin, Labor lady.

She was Boadaceia Fi!

Tennyson described the ancient woman warrior “Standing loftily charioted, Mad and Maddening all that heard her in her fierce volubility”.

This is how I think of her: The get-away-with-anything-blonde, with steely blue eyes and patrician tallness. So politically sharp it was dangerous to be around you. A true leader.

She loved ideas. Hers came partly from political nous, but also intuition. It was a wholly powerful combination.

Fiona worked with Rosie Batty on anti-family violence initiatives. (Image supplied.)

It's no accident that she provided the intellectual policy genius in two key areas of Andrews Government Reform - the removal of dangerous Level Crossings and, of course, Family Violence Reform.

She achieved so much in a short space of time.

Overseeing the Royal Commission into Family Violence, getting Respectful Relationships into the State Curriculum, family violence leave for our public sector workers, funding Victoria against Violence and turning the state orange and developing the state’s first Gender Equality Strategy – which the whole nation is now emulating! Her decision to talk about her own family's experience of violence on Australian Story took guts. She touched the lives of so many people. The whole country got to understand why she was such a fearless champion for victim-survivors.

No-one was more destined to be the nation’s first Family Violence Prevention Minister.

What she did for Rosie Batty. Quietly. No fanfare. She’s so grateful. Fiona had unfinished business.

Before she died she was working to create a Family Violence Prevention Agency to change attitudes and behaviours towards violence in the home within a generation. She planned dedicated and long term funding for prevention, protected by legislation. It would be a world first. Now Fiona's Law, as I will think of it, rests with good women and men across Victorian Parliament, to fulfil her legacy.

For those wishing to financially support Fiona's legacy, make donations to Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre safesteps.org.au or the Luke Batty Foundation lukebattyfoundation.org.au.

For Joan Kirner: 'a woman who maintained women could do anything, and led the way', by Penny Wong - 2015

9 December 2015, Wheeler Centre, Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne, Australia

Part of a Wheeler Centre event called 'The Show of the Year', where 12 public figures are allocated a month of the year each. Penny Wong dedicated 'June' to the loss of her friend and mentor, Joan Kirner.

Joan Kirner died on Monday, the first of June 2015, aged 76.

Tonight I remember her passing.

I also celebrate her life, and her legacy.

Joan is best remembered as the first and only woman to serve as Premier of Victoria.

But I want to start with the personal.

For me, Joan was the most personal of political figures.

No one who came into contact with her could fail to be touched by her warmth.

No one from politics, no one from business, and certainly no one from the community sector.

Joan listened, encouraged and counselled.

When the occasion demanded it, she provided comfort with a hug.

I loved spending time with Joan – a feeling I know I shared with many others.

As the founder of EMILY’s List Australia Joan was a friend and mentor to me and many other Labor women seeking to enter Parliament.

Joan was a strong supporter of affirmative action rules that helped change the culture of the Labor Party – and bring a wave of progressive women into national and state politics.

Like Joan, I maintain that our parliaments should reflect the society they represent.

And all Australians have Joan to thank for her efforts to make that aspiration a reality.

Joan dedicated her life to the service of others – as a teacher, parents club president, parliamentarian, minister, premier and social justice advocate.

In each phase of her life she demonstrated principle, courage and determination.

Those of us who knew Joan know what strong views she held.

Yet she never allowed disagreement to overcome friendship, or detract from the pursuit of a common cause.

Joan first came to public attention as head of the Victorian Federation of State Schools Parent Clubs in the early 1970s.

She remained an advocate for education throughout her life.

In 1982 Joan was elected to the Victorian Parliament – an election that saw Labor return to office after 27 years on the Opposition benches.

In 1985, just three years later, Joan was appointed Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands.

In that portfolio Joan established created the Landcare program and created new national parks.

In 1988 Joan was appointed Minister for Education.

Here Joan’s reputation as a reformer was made with the introduction of the new Victorian Certificate of Education.

Joan became Deputy Premier in 1989.

On 9 August 1990 Joan became Victoria’s first and only woman Premier following the unexpected resignation of John Cain.

There were no easy days in the Kirner Premiership.

The state economy was in strife and internal dissension within the caucus and the labour movement undermined Joan’s attempts to get the government back on track.

Under Joan’s leadership the state government took some hard decisions, including the sale of the State Bank of Victoria.

As Premier, Joan was the subject of unprecedented personal vitriol.

Derogatory labels and snide comments about her dress became the norm in a heated political environment encouraged by the Opposition, a hostile press, and internal division.

An environment that might sound familiar to those of us who served with the first woman Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard.

Joan didn’t buckle, but she did lead Labor to a devastating electoral loss in 1992.

After serving in the shadow ministry for a short period Joan resigned her seat in May 1994 – succeeded by a future Labor Premier, Steve Bracks.

Joan kept working when she left Parliament.

Some of that work was in the public gaze, but much of it was in the community, doing the sort of work that doesn’t generate headlines but makes our world a better place.

Joan remained a passionate advocate for Melbourne’s west – particularly Williamstown – a community she loved, and one that loved her in return.

Joan supported a myriad of women’s and arts organisations, and many progressive causes including the campaign for reproductive rights.

She loved the Essendon Football Club.

I was honoured to be present at Joan’s State Funeral, also in June, surrounded by people who adored and appreciated Joan as much as I did.

I miss her dearly.

Joan’s legacy will endure.

Not just for the state she led, the causes she championed, or the women she supported into Parliament.

But for our daughters, yours and mine, who will benefit from the example, and the work, of a woman who maintained women could do anything, and led the way.

Joan Kirner founded EMILY's List Australia, an organisation that campaigns for gender equality, and this speech was sourced from its facebook feed. On this page, you can give a feminist a Christmas present in Joan's name, and raise money for EMILY's List.