Joan Elizabeth Kirner AM (born 20 June 1938), Australian politician, was the 42nd Premier of Victoria, the first woman to hold the position, which she held for two years prior to a landslide election defeat.

Biography

Kirner was born Joan Hood in Melbourne and was educated at state and private schools and at the University of Melbourne, where she graduated in arts and completed a teaching qualification. She taught in state schools and became active in school and parents' organisations. In 1960 she married Ron Kirner, with whom she had three children. She was President of the Victorian Federation of States School Parents' Clubs, an influential education lobby from 1971 to 1977 and its executive officer from 1978 to 1982. She was appointed to several government advisory bodies on education.

She is an avid supporter of the Essendon Football Club.

Career

Kirner joined the Australian Labor Party in 1978 and became a member of its Socialist Left faction. In 1982 she was elected as a Labor member of the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house of the Victorian Parliament. In 1985 she was elected to the Cabinet of John Cain's Labor government and became Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands. She proposed the Fauna and Flora Guarantee Act (1986), the first Australian legislation which gave legal protection of rare species.

While Minister, and in association with Heather Mitchell from the Victorian Farmers' Federation, Kirner was instrumental in the formation of the first Landcare groups.

At the 1988 election Kirner shifted to the Legislative Assembly, becoming MP for Williamstown, and was promoted to the Education portfolio. In this portfolio Kirner carried out a series of controversial reforms aimed at reducing what Kirner saw as the class-based inequity of the education system, culminating in a new system of assessment, the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE).

Premiership

Later in 1988 Kirner was elected Deputy Premier. When Cain resigned after a collapse in his political support in August 1990, Kirner was elected Labor leader and thus became Victoria's first female Premier.

By this time the Labor government was in deep crisis, with the some of the state's financial institutions on the brink of insolvency, the budget deficit unsustainably high and growing and the Labor Party deeply divided on how to respond to the situation. The party hoped that the elevation of a popular woman as its new leader would improve its position, but Kirner never succeeded in gaining control of the crisis into which the state had plunged.

Some Melbourne press reacted with hostility to a Premier from the Socialist Left, dubbing her "Mother Russia" and other pejorative names. She was lampooned alternatively as a sinister commissar and as a frumpy housewife in a polkadot dress. She seemed unfazed and gradually won some respect, although she was unable to restore the government's standing.

During 1991 and 1992 Kirner took several decisions to cut government spending and raise revenue to some extent. Some of these were actively opposed by trade unions and some members of the government. Among her advisers at this time was Steve Bracks, who later succeeded her as MP for Williamstown and who became Premier in 1999.

In October 1992 Kirner faced an election which the opinion polls gave her no chance of winning. She remained personally more popular than the Liberal Opposition Leader, Jeff Kennett, but the electorate accepted Kennett's campaign theme that Labor was the "guilty party" for Victoria's financial woes, and the Liberals won a huge majority. Kirner stayed on as Opposition Leader for a short period, then resigned. She retired from Parliament in 1994.

Life after Parliament

Since leaving Parliament Kirner has remained active in community affairs and politics. Initially this led her to a leading role in the Landcare movement. Subsequently she has devoted her energies to the Australian affiliate of Emily's List, an organisation which promotes women's careers in politics. Kirner was one of the leaders of the movement in the Labor Party to adopt a policy of setting targets for the number of women candidates in winnable electorates. She has repeatedly publicly supported candidates identified with her Socialist Left faction.

Since January 2006, Kirner has been the Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee for Victorian Communities.

Kirner is also a board member of Museum Victoria, operators of Melbourne Museum, Royal Exhibition Building, Scienceworks Museum and Immigration Museum in Melbourne.

In 1993 she famously appeared on The Late Show with colleague David White, MLA, in a musical skit performing Joan Jett's I Love Rock 'N Roll. This brief performance was covered nationally by the media.

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