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 entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
from 1946 to 1949, the second woman after
Enid Lyons
Dame Enid Muriel Lyons (; 9 July 1897 – 2 September 1981) was an Australian politician. She was notable as the being the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives and to serve in the federal cabinet. Prior to her own politic ...
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 Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
(and the third woman elected to parliament overall). 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,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
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 Women's suffrage in Australia, Australian suffragist and social reformer. She was one of four female candidates at the 1903 Australian federal election, 1903 federal election ...
, the first woman to stand for election to federal parliament in Australia. She married
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 fellow firebrand
socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
, 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 known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
(ALP) member of the Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literatur ...
and Federal 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.
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 bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.
...
.
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.
In June 1947, Maurice and another expelled state Labor politician Charlie Mutton founded the Blackburn-Mutton Labor Party (BMLP).
Following an electoral redistribution, her seat of Bourke was abolished, and at the 1949 election she contested the newly established seat of Wills. In a contest with both the Labor and Liberal parties, she came third with 20 percent. Following the loss, the BMLP merged into the Progressive Labor Party in October 1950, with Blackburn being the provisional president. She stood in Wills again at the 1951 election as the Progressive Labor Party candidate. She came third with 17 percent of the vote. In both times, the seat was convincingly won by Labor.
Affiliations
As of September 1949, Blackburn was a charter member of the Australian Peace Council
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Aus ...
.
Blackburn subsequently remained active in social issues, serving 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 ...
. Realising the problems faced by Aborigines, following a visit to the Woomera Rocket Range
The RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC) is a major Australian military and civil aerospace facility and operation located in South Australia, approximately north-west of Adelaide. The WRC is operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), a S ...
, 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 pioneerin ...
, 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.
Death and legacy
Blackburn died on 12 December 1970 in Coburg, Victoria
Coburg is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the Cities of City of Darebin, Darebin and City of Merri-bek, Merri-bek Loc ...
, aged 81. She had two sons and two daughters, one of which died before her.[
The archives of Blackburn and her spouse Maurice are held by the ]State Library of Victoria
State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...
.
See also
* List of peace activists
This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated Diplomacy, diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usua ...
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 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
Australian pacifists
20th-century Australian women politicians
Australian MPs 1946–1949
Australian anti–World War I activists