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

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(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

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Early life

Born in Hawthorn, Melbourne,

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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

, a fellow firebrand

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, 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

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(ALP) member of the

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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

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. Blackburn subsequently remained active in social issues, serving as president of the

. Realising the problems faced by Aborigines, following a visit to the

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, 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

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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