Timeline
There have been 24 women in the South Australian Legislative Council since its establishment in 1840. Women have had the right to vote and stand as candidates since 1894.
In 1895, South Australian women became the first state in Australia, and some of the first in the world, to be given the right to vote and stand for election to Parliament. The following year at the 1896 election, the first women in Australia voted. Ironically, South Australia was the last state to elect a female representative, at the 1959 election, when Jessie Cooper and Joyce Steele were elected to the Parliament of South Australia for the Liberal and Country League (LCL).
The first woman candidate for Legislative Council honours was Patience Howard, née Hawker (28 March 1900 – 9 August 1994), who stood for the Labor Party for Central No. 2 at the 1953 election. [1] She was unsuccessful in this Liberal stronghold. [2]
The first successful female candidate for the Legislative Council was Cooper. In 1975 she was joined by Labor's first female MLC, Anne Levy, who would later become the first and only female President of the South Australian Legislative Council. Sandra Kanck was the first female Democrat in 1993, and Ann Bressington was the first female independent in 2006.
Names in bold indicate women who have been appointed as Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries during their time in Parliament. Names in italics indicate entry into Parliament through a by-election or by appointment and * symbolises members that have sat as members in both the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly.
| # | Name | Party | Period of service |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jessie Cooper | LCL/Liberal | 7 March 1959 – 10 July 1979 (retired) |
| 2 | Anne Levy | Labor | 12 July 1975 – 10 October 1997 (retired) |
| 3 | Barbara Wiese | Labor | 15 September 1979 – 15 September 1995 (resigned) |
| 4 | Diana Laidlaw | Liberal | 6 November 1982 – 6 June 2003 (resigned) |
| 5 | Carolyn Pickles | Labor | 7 December 1985 – 8 February 2002 (retired) |
| 6 | Bernice Pfitzner | Liberal | 23 October 1990 – 10 October 1997 (defeated) |
| 7 | Caroline Schaefer | Liberal | 1 August 1993 – 20 March 2010 (retired) |
| 8 | Sandra Kanck | Democrats | 11 December 1993 – 30 January 2009 (resigned) |
| Carmel Zollo | Labor | 11 October 1997 – 15 March 2014 (retired) | |
| 10 | Gail Gago | Labor | 9 February 2002 – 17 March 2018 (retired) |
| 11 | Kate Reynolds | Democrats | 17 February 2003 – 17 March 2006 (defeated) |
| 12 | Michelle Lensink | Liberal | 26 June 2003 – |
| 13 | Ann Bressington | Independent | 18 March 2006 – 15 March 2014 (retired) |
| 14 | Tammy Franks | Greens | 20 March 2010 – |
| Jing Lee | Liberal | 20 March 2010 – | |
| Kelly Vincent | Dignity for Disability | 20 March 2010 – 17 March 2018 (defeated) | |
| 17 | Connie Bonaros | SA Best | 17 March 2018 – |
| Emily Bourke | Labor | 17 March 2018 – | |
| Irene Pnevmatikos | Labor | 17 March 2018 – | |
| Clare Scriven | Labor | 17 March 2018 – | |
| 21 | Nicola Centofanti | Liberal | 7 April 2020 – |
| 22 | Heidi Girolamo | Liberal | 24 August 2021 – |
| 23 | Laura Curran | Liberal | 19 March 2022 – |
| Sarah Game | One Nation | 19 March 2022 – |
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.
The House of Assembly, or lower house; Is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.
The Parliament of South Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of South Australia. It consists of the 47-seat House of Assembly and the 22-seat Legislative Council. General elections are held every 4 years, with all of the lower house and half of the upper house filled at each election. It follows a Westminster system of parliamentary government with the executive branch required to both sit in parliament and hold the confidence of the House of Assembly. The parliament is based at Parliament House on North Terrace in the state capital of Adelaide.
Jessie Mary Cooper was elected as a Liberal and Country League representative to the South Australian Legislative Council at the 1959 election. She was one of the first two women elected to the Parliament of South Australia, along with Joyce Steele who was elected to the House of Assembly on the same day. She served until her retirement in 1979.
Joyce Steele was an Australian politician and one of the first two women elected to the Parliament of South Australia, the other being Jessie Cooper. Steele was elected to the House of Assembly and Cooper was elected to the Legislative Council at the 1959 election. Ironically, while South Australian women had been given the right to vote and stand for election—a right they had gained at the 1896 election—South Australia had been the last state to elect a female representative.
Shelley Elizabeth Hancock, an Australian politician. Hancock was the Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly seat of South Coast from 2003 until 2023.
There have been 122 women in the Australian Senate since the establishment of the Parliament of Australia. Women have had the right to stand for federal parliament since 1902, and there were three female candidates for the Senate at the 1903 federal election. However, it was not until Dorothy Tangney's victory at the 1943 federal election that a woman was elected. Since then, all states and territories have had multiple female senators – in chronological order: Western Australia (1943), Queensland (1947), Victoria (1950), South Australia (1955), Tasmania (1975), the Australian Capital Territory (1975), New South Wales (1987), and the Northern Territory (1998).
Government in Australia is elected by universal suffrage and Australian women participate in all levels of the government of the nation. In 1902, the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia became the first nation on earth to enact equal suffrage, enabling women to both vote and stand for election alongside men Women have been represented in Australian state parliaments since 1921, and in the Federal Parliament since 1943. The first female leader of an Australian State or Territory was elected in 1989, and the first female Prime Minister took office in 2010. In 2019 for the first time, a majority of members of the Australian Senate were women. At the time of its foundation in 1901, and again from 1952 to 2022, Australia has had a female monarch as ceremonial Head of State, while the first female Governor of an Australian State was appointed in 1991, and the first female Governor-General of Australia took office in 2008.
There have been 81 women in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly since its establishment in 1856. Women have had the right to vote in the assembly since 1902 and the right to stand as a candidate since 1918.
The 2010 South Australian state election elected members to the 52nd Parliament of South Australia on 20 March 2010. All seats in the House of Assembly or lower house, whose current members were elected at the 2006 election, and half the seats in the Legislative Council or upper house, last filled at the 2002 election, became vacant.
The 1896 South Australian colonial election was held on 25 April 1896 to elect all 54 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly. In the seat of Northern Territory, the election was on 2 May. All 54 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent liberal government led by Premier of South Australia Charles Kingston in an informal coalition with the United Labor Party (ULP) led by John McPherson defeated the conservative opposition. Each district elected multiple members, with voters casting multiple votes.
There have been 60 women in the New South Wales Legislative Council since its establishment in 1856. Women have had the right to stand as a candidate since 1918; the Council introduced direct election in 1978.
There have been 108 women in the Victorian Legislative Assembly since its establishment in 1856. Women have had the right to vote in Victoria, Australia since 1908 and the right to stand as a candidate for the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 1923.
There have been 60 women in the Victorian Legislative Council since its establishment in 1856. Women have had the right to vote in Victoria, Australia since 1908 and the right to stand as a candidate for the Victorian Legislative Council since 1923. In the 2022 Victorian election, there were 22 women elected to the 40 member Legislative Council, forming a majority of the chamber for the first time.
There have been 97 women in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland since its establishment in 1860. Women have had the right to vote in the Assembly since 1905 and the right to stand as candidates since 1915.
There have been 66 women in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly since its establishment in 1890. Women have had the right to vote since 1899 and the right to stand as candidates since 1920.
There have been 54 women in the Western Australian Legislative Council since its creation in 1832. Women have had the right to vote since 1899 and the right to stand as candidates since 1920.
There have been 38 women in the Tasmanian House of Assembly since its establishment in 1856. Women have had the right to vote since 1903 and the right to stand as candidates since 1921.
There have been 22 women in the Tasmanian Legislative Council since its establishment in 1825. Women have had the right to vote since 1903 and the right to stand as candidates since 1921.
There have been 51 women in the South Australian House of Assembly since its establishment in 1857. Women have had the right to vote and the right to stand as candidates since 1894.