A summary of Irene Longman – As delivered by Emeritus Professor Peter Coaldrake AO
On the 20th October 2022, IPAA Queensland was delighted to host our annual Irene Longman Oration.
The IPAA Queensland Irene Longman Oration is named in honour of Irene Longman, the first female elected to the Queensland Parliament (1929-1932) and dedicated ‘public servant’ to the community for over 30 years.
Her values and legacy include the welfare of women, children and people with intellectual disabilities; establishing the first education opportunity classes; the first women police in Queensland; creating a separate Children’s Court; and for the appointment of an advisory panel in difficult cases of juvenile delinquency.
The Oration is an annual flagship event, similar to IPAA National’s Garran Oration (in honour of Sir Robert Garran, the first Commonwealth public servant) and the orations of state and territory IPAAs.
This year’s Oration was delivered by Emeritus Professor Peter Coaldrake AO under the theme “Pride and purpose in service”.
Emeritus Professor Coaldrake’s Oration offered insights from his long and distinguished career in leading public service organisations and undertaking significant reform.
As shared by Coaldrake with regards to the history and milestones of Irene Longman’s achievements in Parliament:
Irene Maud Longman was the first woman elected to the parliament of Queensland from the interestingly titled Country and Progressive Party.
When you think about it though, she was the only woman to enter parliament in the 87 years of her life. That’s quite remarkable when you think about it.
She was the daughter of a congregationalist minister and as I think your flyer might say, and she got a secondary education in Sydney and then taught in Sydney and then taught in Rockhampton. And she got her diploma. What was notable about it is though from a very young age, she was very active in community organisations and a range of them and some of those kindergarten and creche and others are listed in the flier.
In other words, and probably what’s relevant is she had a lot of life experience before she went into Parliament because she went into parliament at the age of 52.
She had huge qualities of resilience to have actually made it there.
She actually never was motivated by anything other than a sense of obligation to serve. So that notion of service and the pride and service was so important, and which is of course why she’s acknowledged now.
After politics, I don’t think this is said, she spent a lot of time as with a range of organisations, peace organisations, organisations associated with the intellectually disabled, particularly kids. She was a real activist.
The term activist these days is somewhat used pejoratively and oftentimes as equated as a pest.
But if Irene Maud Longman was around now, she’d probably regarded as a pest because what she was seeking was to push for the causes which were important in the long term but which she knew might not be achieved in the short term while she was a direct contributor.
(Let me add just a couple of other things about her life and the color of her life. And these are matters that I actually have picked up largely from an essay about her by Shirley Swain, which really I thought was very insightful.)
Parliament in 1929 was not a very welcoming place for women. You will have got that.
She was the only woman in parliament during her lifetime.
She was not permitted access to the parliamentary dining room.
She had to be content with eating her lunch on the veranda.
There were no toilet facilities in the parliament.
And – she was attacked for taking a parliamentary salary because in doing so she was taking one of the jobs of the boys.
She had some notable successes as a parliamentarian, particularly for the agitations, with her agitations leading to the appointment of Queensland’s first woman police officer.
That was a signature achievement.
She worked in the area of juvenile delinquency with men and women, suggesting she was a long way ahead of her time.
Where she was less successful, she sought to encourage the boys to pass more equitable divorce laws.
That didn’t work.
She sought to encourage everyone to be on the case for equal pay for equal work.
That didn’t work either.
But – she didn’t bear any bitterness after being defeated. She simply continued her career, a notable career, as a community worker.
However, she did allow herself one observation of her time in Parliament. She said, and I quote,
“There were only a few men on either side of the house who were as mentally alert as the woman with whom I have ever worked.”
We might just leave it there.
All of us who are here at this oration, share an interest and I dare say a passion about the role that government can play for the good of the community.
Though none of us would seek to measure up to the standards of Irene Longman, particularly in terms of the time. We also have come to learn about government in our lives in very different ways.
Learning about the role of government, the reach of government, and of course it’s changed vastly over the years.
And the immense challenges of course that governments nowadays face are now familiar to us.
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