Doris Amelia Blackburn (; 18 September 1889 – 12 December 1970) was an Australian social reformer and politician. She served in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 1946 to 1949, the second woman after

Enid Lyons Dame Enid Muriel Lyons (née Burnell; 9 July 1897 – 2 September 1981) was an Australian politician who was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and the first woman to serve in federal cabinet. Prior to her own political ca ...

to do so. Blackburn was a prominent socialist and originally a member of the Labor Party. She was married to

Maurice Blackburn Maurice McCrae Blackburn (19 November 1880 – 31 March 1944) was an Australian politician and socialist lawyer, noted for his protection of the interests of workers and the establishment of the legal firm known as Maurice Blackburn Lawyers. ...

, a Labor MP, but he was expelled from the party in 1937 and she resigned from the party in solidarity. Her husband died in 1944, and she was elected to his former seat at the 1946 federal election – the first woman elected to parliament as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

. However, Blackburn served only a single term before being defeated. She later served as president of the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

Early life

Born in

Hawthorn, Melbourne Hawthorn is an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the City of Boroondara local government area. Hawthorn recorded a population of 22,322 at the 2021 census. Glenfer ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

to Lebbeus Hordern, estate agent, and his wife Louisa Dewson (née Smith), Doris Hordern became involved in women's rights and peace issues from a young age and served as the campaign secretary of

Vida Goldstein Vida Jane Mary Goldstein (pron. ) (13 April 186915 August 1949) was an Australian suffragist and social reformer. She was one of four female candidates at the 1903 federal election, the first at which women were eligible to stand. Goldstein wa ...

, the first woman to stand for election to federal parliament in Australia. She married

, a fellow firebrand

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

, in Melbourne on 10 December 1914 and spent their honeymoon organising anti-war and anti-conscription campaigns.

Politics

While her husband served at different times as an

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

(ALP) member of the Victorian and

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parliaments, Blackburn continued to work on social issues, some of which brought her into conflict with the Labor Party (of which she too was a member) and following Maurice's expulsion from the party in 1937, she resigned from the ALP. Her husband continued to sit in parliament as an independent but lost his seat at the 1943 federal election to the official Labor candidate, and died the following year. Published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, (MUP), 1979.

Parliament

Upset at Labor's treatment of her husband, Blackburn stood as an Independent Labour candidate for her husband's old seat of Bourke at the 1946 election, and by winning it she became only the second woman to be elected to the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members o ...

. In parliament Blackburn, who shared the cross benches with fellow former Labor member Jack Lang, championed similar issues to those of her late husband, gaining nationwide notoriety in 1947 as the only MP to vote against the Atomic Energy Bill. She served as the national President of the Council for Civil Liberties. Following an electoral redistribution, her seat of Bourke was abolished, and at the 1949 election she contested the newly established seat of

Wills Wills may refer to: * Will (law) A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the pr ...

. In a contest with both the Labor and Liberal parties she came third with 20 percent. Standing in Wills again at the 1951 election she also came third with 17 percent of the vote. Both times the seat was convincingly won by Labor.

Affiliations

As of September 1949, Blackburn was a charter member of the Australian Peace Council. Blackburn subsequently remained active in social issues, serving as president of the

. Realising the problems faced by Aborigines, following a visit to the Woomera Rocket Range, she co-founded, with

Douglas Nicholls Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls, (9 December 1906 – 4 June 1988) was a prominent Aboriginal Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneeri ...

, the

Aborigines Advancement League The Aboriginal Advancement League was founded in 1957 as the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL), is the oldest Aboriginal rights organisation in Australia still in operation. Its precursor organisations were the Australian Abori ...

and the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement. Published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 13, (MUP), 1993

Death

Blackburn died on 12 December 1970 in

Coburg, Victoria Coburg is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Darebin and Merri-bek local government areas. Coburg recorded a population of 26,574 at the 2021 census. Althou ...

, aged 81, survived by her two sons and one of her two daughters.

References

External links

Entry for D. Blackburn in the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition
*''The Blackburns: Private Lives, Public Ambition'', Carolyn Rasmussen, Melbourne University Press, 2019, {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackburn, Doris 1889 births 1970 deaths Australian socialists Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Bourke Independent members of the Parliament of Australia Women members of the Australian House of Representatives Australian women of World War I Spouses of Australian politicians Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people 20th-century Australian politicians 19th-century Australian women Australian pacifists 20th-century Australian women politicians