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. The first successful female candidate for the Legislative Council was

Margaret McIntyre Margaret Edgeworth David McIntyre, (28 November 1886 – 2 September 1948) was the first woman elected to the Parliament of Tasmania, representing the seat of Cornwall in the Legislative Council. Life and career McIntyre was born in Maitlan ...

, who was elected as the member for Cornwall in 1948. Like most MLCs, McIntyre was an independent. She died later in 1948 in an air accident, and the next woman elected to the Council was Labor's Lucy Grounds in 1951. Another Labor woman,

Phyllis Benjamin Phyllis Jean Benjamin (30 August 1907 – 9 April 1996), Labor Party politician, was a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council in the electorate of Hobart from 10 May 1952 until her retirement on 22 May 1976. Born Phyllis Allsopp, she m ...

, joined Grounds in 1952; Grounds retired in 1958 and Benjamin in 1976, in which year Kath Venn was elected to the Council. After Venn's departure in 1982 there were no women in the Council until 1992, when

Jean Moore Jean Mary Moore (8 November 1933 – 26 November 2016) was an Australian politician. She was born in Evandale, Tasmania. In 1992 she was elected to the Tasmanian Legislative Council as the independent member for Hobart, holding the seat un ...

was elected. She departed in 1994, and since the election of

Silvia Smith Silvia Joy Smith (22 December 1939 – 6 March 2020) was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), serving in the Australian House of Representatives from 1993 to 1996 and the Tasmanian Legislative Council f ...

and Sue Smith to the Council in 1997 women have been represented continuously. In 2009, Vanessa Goodwin became the first Liberal woman elected to the Council.

List of women in the Tasmanian Legislative Council

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.

Timeline

ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:12 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:120 left:20 AlignBars = early DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1945 till:2025 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1945 Colors = id:AL value:red legend: Australian Labor Party id:LP value:blue legend: Liberal Party of Australia id:ID value:gray(0.6) legend: Independent Legend = columns:3 left:150 top:50 columnwidth:200 BarData = barset:MLCs PlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:MLCs from:1948 till:1948 color:ID text:"

(1948)" from:1951 till:1958 color:AL text:" Lucy Grounds (1951–1958)" from:1952 till:1976 color:AL text:"

(1952–1976)" from:1976 till:1982 color:AL text:" Kath Venn (1976–1982)" from:1992 till:1994 color:ID text:"

(1992–1994)" from:1997 till:2003 color:ID text:"

(1997–2003)" from:1997 till:2013 color:ID text:" Sue Smith (1997–2013)" from:1999 till:2011 color:AL text:"

Lin Thorp Lin Estelle Thorp (born 4 November 1953) is a former Australian politician. She was a Labor Party member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council from 1999 until 2011, representing the electorate of Rumney, and serving as Minister for Human Servi ...

(1999–2011)" from:1999 till:2001 color:ID text:" Cathy Edwards (1999–2001)" from:2001 till:2009 color:AL text:" Allison Ritchie (2001–2009)" from:2003 till:2009 color:ID text:"

Norma Jamieson Norma Mary Jamieson (born 23 May 1941, in Ulverstone) is an Australian politician. She was an independent member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council (upper house) in the electoral division of Mersey An election is a formal group decis ...

(2003–2009)" from:2004 till:2020 color:ID text:"

Tania Rattray Tania Verene Rattray (born 28 March 1958) is an independent member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council (upper house) in the division of McIntyre. Rattray was educated at Winnaleah Area School and Scottsdale High School. Before becoming a f ...

(2004–present)" from:2005 till:2020 color:ID text:"

Ruth Forrest Ruth Jane Forrest (born 4 March 1962 in Burnie) is an independent member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council in the electoral division of Murchison. Forrest was first elected in May 2005. Following her first six-year term, she was the only ca ...

(2005–present)" from:2009 till:2017 color:LP text:" Vanessa Goodwin (2009–2017)" from:2010 till:2016 color:ID text:"

Adriana Taylor Adriana Johanna Taylor (born 20 August 1946) is an Australian politician. She was an Independent member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council for Elwick from 2010 to 2016. She was born in Tilburg in the Netherlands,Rosemary Armitage Rosemary Lois Armitage (born 5 December 1955) is an Australian politician, an independent member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council, representing the electoral division of Launceston since her election on 7 May 2011. Prior to her election to ...

(2011–present)" from:2013 till:2020 color:LP text:" Leonie Hiscutt (2013–present)" from:2017 till:2020 color:AL text:"

Sarah Lovell Sarah Elizabeth Lovell (born 9 October 1980) is an Australian politician. She has been the Labor member for Rumney in the Tasmanian Legislative Council since the 2017 periodic elections. Lovell was a union representative for United Voice bef ...

(2017–present)" from:2017 till:2020 color:AL text:"

Jo Siejka Joanna Clare Siejka (born 11 September 1980) is an Australian politician and not-for-profit leader. Siejka was elected as a first-time Labor party candidate to the Tasmanian Legislative Council in a by-election for the electoral division of Pem ...

(2017–present)" from:2018 till:2020 color:LP text:"

Jane Howlett Jane Howlett is an Australian politician, who has been a Liberal member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council for the division of Prosser since 2018. After Peter Gutwein became Premier in January 2020, Howlett was promoted to his cabinet as M ...

(2018–present)" from:2019 till:2020 color:ID text:"

Meg Webb Megan Therese Webb (born 6 October 1974) is an Australian politician and community sector worker. At the periodic elections in May 2019, she was elected to the Tasmanian Legislative Council as the independent member for Nelson, replacing long-ti ...

(2019–present)" from:2020 till:2020 color:ID text:"

Jo Palmer Joanne Lesley Palmer (née Dick, formerly Cornish; born 10 April 1971) is an Australian politician and former television journalist and newsreader. Palmer was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and moved to Tasmania as a baby after being adopt ...

(2020–present)" barset:skip

List of women in the Tasmanian Legislative Council

Timeline

See also