Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Honourable Speaker, I rise to add my words of condolences to the family, friends and members of the Labor Party who knew and loved Gillian Hillma James – Gill James. I especially add our condolences, thoughts and full respect to Ken for all of his mother’s life and what she contributed to the community.
She was the longest-serving woman member of the House of Assembly since women won the right to stand in this parliament in 2021. She was elected twice, as we’ve heard, from 1976 to 1989 and again from 1992 to 2002, but those facts hide the reality of what she achieved through her career. By her legacy she’s shown what true community service looks like and we’ve heard a lot of examples. Gill was obviously a woman who never rested and devoted herself to standing up to injustice and calling it out and used her precious time on Earth to work for other people, and that is really evident in what she did.
She grew up, as we’ve understood, in a Liberal voting family, but in her teenage years she became lit with the passion of the policies of the Labor Party in the 1960s, which were really calling out injustice and crying out for change, so much so that she was successful when she was 19, just out of school, in getting a job with Labor Senator Justin O’Byrne. She left school, went to Canberra and went on the journey of federal politics, which is a massive step for a young Tasmanian woman from Launceston.
After the birth of Ken, her son, she was asked to work for a short stint with the deputy leader of the Labor Party, Lance Barnard, in 1962, but she was obviously so capable and effective – also maybe there was the Launceston bond, because I understand that Lance Barnard was also from Launceston; two Launcestonians in Canberra – and so respected that she remained with Lance Barnard until he left politics as then deputy prime minister of Australia in 1975.
Gill didn’t stop there. She took the passion of the Whitlam era and what had been achieved at the national level and brought it to Canberra, and as we’ve heard, she stood and was successful in entering into Tasmanian politics in 1976. It was at a time when she used the energy of what was happening nationally with the feminist movement, with women, with the work that Julia Ryan did as the Labor first ever minister for women, and she came down to Tasmania and smashed through some of the many layers of glass that hold women back. There are still some more to smash and we’re all doing our best to do that, but Gill has been there and was the first woman to become a Cabinet minister. As we’ve heard from Ms Finlay, the member for Bass, that would have been quite an awesome space to enter into and she didn’t just take up a small job, she took up a massive job accepting the health and mental health portfolios as well as the consumer affairs and administrative services portfolios that we’ve heard about.
She also continued her work with the Labor Party and was for many years working with Lance Barnard when he was the deputy president of the Labor Party and then working here with the Parliamentary Labor Party when she was a member of parliament as the whip. She was also deputy chair of committees and held a number of other roles that were also firsts, so she was a woman who was not afraid of being out in front and she obviously carried with her a passion for why it was important to do that.
She worked with Lance Barnard when he had the defence portfolio in Canberra from 1972 to 1975. In the contribution by Rosemary Armitage MLC, she talked about the fact that Lance Barnard had some Vietnamese orphans that he raised, so she was personally affected by returned servicepeople’s experiences and by a connection with the Vietnamese community that galvanised her for the rest of her life in the work that she did for returned soldiers.
She was a life member of the Vietnam Veterans Association and a patron of the Tasmanian chapter of the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club. Maybe other members can confirm whether she ever got on a bike. I reckon she probably did because it sounds like that’s the sort of woman she was. She was also involved in a whole range of things, the Launceston Art Society, the netball association in northern Tasmania, Huntington’s disease and we’ve heard a range of other things. I suspect it doesn’t tap the depths of the things that she was involved in because she was a giver, no doubt about that.
She completed her 23 years of service to Tasmania, 23 years ago and – so many firsts for women. She walked where no woman had walked before. She opened doors that we women in the Chamber follow and other women will follow. We will push through other doors because we have Gill James, with all her energy, passion and spirit, in our back pocket, all of us. A place like Tasmania is better thanks to people like Gill James. We are grateful for the service she gave to Tasmania and Tasmanians.
Ken, I want to say, on behalf of the Greens, we can see your mother was very special, and she gave a lot and I’m sure she gave a lot to you, too. Her legacy will be enduring for the better. Vale Gill James.
