Kathryn Jean Martin Sullivan AM (born 8 March 1942) is a former Australian politician. A member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, she was a

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

for

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

from 1974 to 1984 and a member of 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 1984 to 2001, holding the seat of Moncrieff.Parliamentary profile
/ref> She broke

Dorothy Tangney Dame Dorothy Margaret Tangney DBE (13 March 19073 June 1985) was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1943 to 1968. She was the first woman elected to ...

's record for the longest period of service in federal parliament by a woman, which was later surpassed by

Bronwyn Bishop Bronwyn Kathleen Bishop (née Setright; born 19 October 1942) is an Australian former politician. She was a member of federal parliament for almost 30 years, the longest period of service by a woman. A member of the Liberal Party, she was a ...

. She was the first woman to have served in both houses of parliament.Dr Joy McCann and Janet Wilson (7 March 2012)
Representation of women in Australian parliaments
Australian Parliamentary Library.

Early life

Sullivan was born Kathryn Jean Martin on 8 March 1942 in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

. She was the second of two daughters born to Edna (née Sproul) and Ian Martin. Her mother was a nurse and post office worker and her father was a bank officer. She grew up in country Queensland, attending primary schools in Mount Morgan,

Kingaroy Kingaroy is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is situated on the junction of the D'Aguilar and the Bunya Highways, north-west of the state capital Brisbane and south west of Gympie. As a ...

, Humpybong, and Camp Hill. Her secondary education was completed at

Somerville House Somerville House is an independent, boarding and day school for girls, located in South Brisbane, an inner-city suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Established in 1899 as the Brisbane High School for Girls, the School was eventually nam ...

in Brisbane. She went on to complete a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

( Hons.) degree in political science at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

Politics

Martin joined the Young Liberals in 1960 during her first year at university. She served as state secretary in 1961 and vice-president in 1963, and had received life membership by the time she graduated.

Senate (1974–1984)

Martin was elected to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

at the 1974 federal election, a

double dissolution A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives ( lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissoluti ...

. She was ranked in fifth position on the Liberal Party's joint ticket with the Country Party. At the time of her preselection she was asked to use the name "Kathy" rather than her full name as it was "friendlier", and also "to stop wearing knee-high boots and smoking cigars". In April 1975, Martin was chosen as the Liberal Party's assistant whip in the Senate. She was "a linchpin in keeping the Opposition senators in line" during the 1975 constitutional crisis, and retained the position after the Coalition won the 1975 federal election. She resigned as assistant whip in February 1977 after

crossing the floor In parliamentary systems, politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a different political party than which they were initially elected under (as is the case in Canada and the United Kingdom). ...

with nine other Liberal senators to oppose a procedural motion to expedite the government's

constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, ...

bills. Martin subsequently led the "No" campaign in Queensland against the simultaneous elections amendment, which was the only one of four not to pass. Her relationship with Prime Minister

Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Fraser was raised on hi ...

deteriorated as a result and "destroyed her prospects for promotion while he remained party leader". Prior to the 1983 election, Martin offered to resign her place on the Liberal Senate ticket in favour of

Neville Bonner Neville Thomas Bonner AO (28 March 19225 February 1999) was an Australian politician, and the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia. He was appointed by the Queensland Parliament to fill a casual vacancy ...

, who had been demoted to the third position. Her offer was rejected and Bonner unsuccessfully stood as an independent. In the last years of the Fraser Government she had increasingly aligned herself with opposition to Fraser's leadership, supporting

Andrew Peacock Andrew Sharp Peacock (13 February 193916 April 2021) was an Australian politician and diplomat. He served as a cabinet minister and went on to become leader of the Liberal Party on two occasions (1983–1985 and 1989–1990), leading the pa ...

for the party leadership. Fraser resigned as leader after losing the 1983 election and was replaced by Peacock, who appointed Martin as Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and Administrative Services. She resigned from the Senate in November 1984 to seek a lower-house seat at the upcoming federal election, which followed an expansion in the number of House of Representatives seats. After her marriage the previous year she was known as Kathy Sullivan or Kathy Martin Sullivan. In 2021, Sullivan stated that a male colleague sexually assaulted her in her office in about 1983 or 1984. She said that the party's leader

"clearly didn't believe" her account of the incident when she informed him, and that it was "one of the most devastating experiences of my life". Sullivan made this allegation publicly known on 9 July 2021, almost three months after Peacock's death on 16 April.

House of Representatives (1984–2001)

At the 1984 election, Sullivan won the newly created

Division of Moncrieff The Division of Moncrieff is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. Geography Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Aus ...

for the Liberal Party. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of federal parliament. She was also the first female Coalition MP to serve in the House since Kay Brownbill in 1969. Sullivan was not retained in Andrew Peacock's shadow ministry after the 1984 election. She returned as a shadow parliamentary secretary in 1993 under

John Hewson John Robert Hewson AM (born 28 October 1946) is an Australian former politician who served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1990 to 1994. He led the Liberal-National Coalition to defeat at the 1993 Australian federal election. Hewson wa ...

, holding the position until Hewson lost the leadership the following year. She returned to her former position as a deputy whip later in 1994, holding the position until the 1996 election. Sullivan hoped to become Speaker of the House of Representatives when the

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

won the 1996 federal election, but was defeated by Bob Halverson in an internal ballot. She was instead elected to the

speaker's panel The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia. The counterpart in the upper house is the President of the Senate. The office of Speaker wa ...

. Following a ministerial reshuffle, Sullivan was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in October 1997. She held the position until February 2000 when she announced her decision not to re-contest her seat at the 2001 federal election. She has been a vocal advocate for an increase in the number of women in parliament.

Recognition

In 2003, she was made a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Go ...

, for service to the Parliament of Australia and to the community, particularly as an advocate for improved services and conditions affecting women.SULLIVAN, Kathy
''It's an Honour'', 2003. Sullivan was a relatively low-profile MP but in 1993 received national attention when ALP Treasurer

John Dawkins John Sydney "Joe" Dawkins, AO (born 2 March 1947) is an Australian former politician who was Treasurer in the Keating Labor government from December 1991 to December 1993. He is notable for his reforms of tertiary education as Minister for E ...

taunted her by calling her "sweetheart" in Parliament, which outraged female MPs from Dawkins' own party. According to a study by the Parliamentary Library, Sullivan

crossed the floor Crossed may refer to: * ''Crossed'' (comics), a 2008 comic book series by Garth Ennis * ''Crossed'' (novel), a 2010 young adult novel by Ally Condie * "Crossed" (''The Walking Dead''), an episode of the television series ''The Walking Dead'' S ...

20 times during her career, the most out of any woman during the period from 1950 to 2019. Each of those occasions occurred during her service in the Senate.

Personal life

From 1965 to 1969 Sullivan was married to Donald Maher. In 1972, he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a Brisbane hotel manager; he was released in 1987. Sullivan re-married in 1975 to Jim Gray, continuing to use her maiden name in parliament. They divorced in 1978 and in 1983 she married Bob Sullivan, a former U.S. Marine. She was widowed in 2008. After the conclusion of her political career, Sullivan has used the name "Kate" rather than "Kathy".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Kathy 1942 births Living people Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Moncrieff Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Australian Senate for Queensland Women members of the Australian House of Representatives Women members of the Australian Senate Members of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Centenary Medal Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians 20th-century Australian politicians Australian schoolteachers University of Queensland alumni 20th-century Australian women politicians