Joan Kirner

The Honourable Joan Kirner AC
42nd Premier of Victoria
In office 10 August 1990 – 6 October 1992
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor	Davis McCaughey Richard McGarvie
Deputy	Jim Kennan
Preceded by	John Cain II
Succeeded by	Jeff Kennett
21st Deputy Premier of Victoria
In office 7 February 1989 – 10 August 1990
Premier	John Cain II
Preceded by	Robert Fordham
Succeeded by	Jim Kennan
Leader of the Opposition of Victoria
In office 6 October 1992 – March 1993
Deputy	Jim Kennan
Preceded by	Jeff Kennett
Succeeded by	Jim Kennan
Member of the Victorian Parliament for Williamstown
In office 1 October 1988 – 27 May 1994
Preceded by	Gordon Stirling
Succeeded by	Steve Bracks
Member of the Victorian Legislative Council for Melbourne West
In office 3 April 1982 – 30 September 1988
Preceded by	Herbert Thomas
Succeeded by	Licia Kokocinski
Personal details
Born	Joan Elizabeth Hood (1938-06-20)20 June 1938 Essendon, Victoria, Australia
Died	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Spouse(s)	Ronald George Kirner
Children	Michael, Kate, and David
Alma mater	University of Melbourne
Profession	Teacher

Joan Elizabeth Kirner AC (née Hood; 20 June 1938 – 1 June 2015) was an Australian politician who was the 42nd Premier of Victoria, serving from 1990 to 1992. A Labor Party member of the Parliament of Victoria from 1982 to 1994, she was a member of the Legislative Council before later winning a seat in the Legislative Assembly. Kirner was a minister and briefly deputy premier in the government of John Cain, Jr., and succeeded him as premier following his resignation. She was Australia's second female premier, and the first in Victoria, and held the position until her party was defeated in a landslide at the 1992 state election.

Early life and career

Born Joan Elizabeth Hood in Essendon, Melbourne, the only child of John Keith and Beryl Edith (née Cole) Hood, a fitter and turner and music teacher respectively, Kirner was educated at state and private schools. She graduated in arts from the University of Melbourne, and completed a teaching qualification. She taught in state schools and became active in school and parents' organisations. In 1960 she married Ron Kirner, with whom she had three children. She was President of the Victorian Federation of States School Parents' Clubs, an influential education lobby from 1971 to 1977 and its executive officer from 1978-82. She was appointed to several government advisory bodies on education.

Entry into state politics

Kirner joined the Australian Labor Party in 1978 and became a member of its Socialist Left faction. In 1982, she was elected as a Labor member of the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house of the Victorian Parliament. In 1985, she was elected to the Cabinet of John Cain's Labor government and became Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands. She proposed the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988, the first Australian legislation which gave legal protection of rare species. While Minister, and in association with Heather Mitchell from the Victorian Farmers' Federation, Kirner was instrumental in the formation of the first Landcare groups.

At the 1988 election, Kirner shifted to the Legislative Assembly, becoming MP for Williamstown, and was promoted to the Education portfolio. In this portfolio Kirner carried out a series of controversial reforms aimed at reducing what Kirner saw as the class-based inequity of the education system, culminating in a new system of assessment, the Victorian Certificate of Education.

Premiership

Later in 1988 Kirner was elected deputy leader of the party and became Deputy Premier of Victoria. When Cain resigned after a collapse in his political support in August 1990, Kirner was elected Labor leader and thus became Victoria's first female Premier. By this time the Labor government was in deep crisis, with some of the state's financial institutions on the brink of insolvency, the budget deficit unsustainably high and growing and the Labor Party deeply divided on how to respond to the situation. The party hoped that the elevation of a popular woman as its new leader would improve its position, but Kirner never succeeded in gaining control of the crisis into which the state had plunged. The conservative-leaning Melbourne newspaper, the Herald Sun, reacted unfavourably to a Premier from the Socialist Left, dubbing her "Mother Russia". She was lampooned alternatively as a sinister commissar and as a frumpy housewife in a polka dot dress. She seemed unfazed by the Herald Sun and gradually won some respect, though she was unable to improve significantly the government's standing.

During 1991 and 1992 Kirner took several decisions to cut government spending and raise revenue to some extent, however her government failed to cut spending in many areas including education. Most of the Kirner Government attempts to cut spending were actively opposed by trade unions and some members of the government. The interest bill alone was $3.5 billion per year, the government sold off trains and trams and leased them back. Another decision was the sale of the state-owned State Bank of Victoria to the Commonwealth Bank in 1991.

Kirner went into 1992 knowing she faced a statutory general election, one which opinion polls gave her virtually no chance of winning. She waited as long as she could, finally calling an election for October. It was obvious as soon as the writs were dropped that Labor would not win a fourth term. Although she remained personally more popular than the Liberal Opposition Leader, Jeff Kennett, it was not nearly enough to overcome the electorate's anger at her party. The Coalition's "Guilty Party" campaign did much to stoke this anger, targeting many Ministers in the Kirner Government and providing examples of concerns in their portfolios.

The Coalition won the election in a landslide, scoring a 19-seat swing—the second-worst defeat that a sitting government has ever suffered in Victoria. The Liberals actually won enough seats that they could have governed in their own right. Kirner remained Opposition Leader for a short period before resigning. She retired from Parliament in 1994 and was succeeded by one of her former aides, future premier Steve Bracks.

A portrait of Kirner by artist Annette Bezor hangs in Queens Hall at Parliament House Victoria.

Life after Parliament

After leaving Parliament, Kirner remained active in community affairs and politics. Initially this led her to a leading role in the Landcare movement. Subsequently she devoted her energies to the Australian affiliate of EMILY's List, an organisation which promotes pro-choice women's careers in politics. Kirner was one of the leaders of the movement in the Labor Party to adopt a policy of setting targets for the number of women candidates in winnable electorates. She repeatedly publicly supported candidates identified with her Socialist Left faction. From January 2006, Kirner was the Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee for Victorian Communities.

Kirner was also a board member of Museum Victoria, operators of Melbourne Museum, Royal Exhibition Building, Scienceworks Museum and Immigration Museum, Melbourne. Kirner was a long-time advocate of abortion law reform to legalise abortion. She was an avid supporter of the Essendon Football Club.

In 1993, she famously appeared on The Late Show with colleague David White, MLC for Doutta Galla, in a musical skit performing Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll". This brief performance was covered nationally by the media.

In an August 2009 interview with Channel 9, Kirner revealed that she had suffered a heavy near-fatal fall at a meeting 18 months earlier. She also revealed that she had osteoporosis and was blind in one eye.

Death

In August 2013 it was announced that Kirner had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Kirner died on 1 June 2015, aged 76.

Honours

On 1 January 2001, Kirner was awarded the Centenary Medal.

On 26 January 1980, she was named a Member of the Order of Australia for her community service.

On 11 June 2012, she was named a Companion of the Order of Australia for "eminent service to the Parliament of Victoria and to the community through conservation initiatives, contributions to gender equality, the development of education and training programs and the pursuit of civil rights and social inclusion."

External links

• Kirner, Joan Elizabeth in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia

Victorian Legislative Council
Preceded by Herbert Thomas	Member for Melbourne West 1982–1988	Succeeded by Licia Kokocinski
Victorian Legislative Assembly
Preceded by Gordon Stirling	Member for Williamstown 1988–1994	Succeeded by Steve Bracks
Political offices
Preceded by Rob Mackenzie	Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands 1985–1988	Succeeded by Kay Setches
Preceded by Caroline Hogg	Minister for Education 1988–1990	Succeeded by Barry Pullen
Preceded by Robert Fordham	Deputy Premier of Victoria 1989–1990	Succeeded by Jim Kennan
Preceded by John Cain	Premier of Victoria 1990–1992	Succeeded by Jeff Kennett
Party political offices
Preceded by John Cain	Leader of the Australian Labor Party in Victoria 1990–1993	Succeeded by Jim Kennan