Women in the Tasmanian House of Assembly


There have been 35 women in the Tasmanian House of Assembly since its establishment in 1856. Women have had the right to vote since 1903 and the right to stand as candidates since 1921.
The first successful female candidates for the House of Assembly were Amelia Best and Mabel Miller, both Liberals, who were elected in 1955. In 1962, Miller was joined by the first Labor woman, Lynda Heaven. In 1964, both Miller and Heaven left the House, and women were not represented again until 1976, when Labor's Gill James was elected. Since then women have been continuously represented in the House.
Christine Milne and Di Hollister were the first women elected to represent the Greens. To date no women have been elected as independent members, although Mary Willey left the Labor Party at the end of her term. Kathryn Hay is the only Indigenous woman to have been elected to the Tasmanian parliament.
Lara Giddings became the first female Premier of Tasmania on 24 January 2011.
With the re-election of Madeleine Ogilvie on 11 September 2019, the House of Assembly became the first parliamentary chamber in Australian history to have a majority of women members, with 13 of the 25 members being female.

List of women in the Tasmanian House of Assembly

Names in bold indicate women who have been appointed as Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries during their time in Parliament. Names in italics indicate women who were first elected at a recount, and * symbolises members that have sat as members in both the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council.

Timeline


ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:12
PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:200 left:20
AlignBars = early
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1950 till:2020
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1950
Colors =
id:LP value:blue legend: Liberal Party of Australia
id:AL value:red legend: Australian Labor Party
id:AG value:brightgreen legend: Tasmanian Greens/Australian Greens
id:ID value:gray legend: Independent
Legend = columns:3 left:150 top:50 columnwidth:200
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bar:Best
barset:MHAs
bar:James
bar:Willey
barset:MHAs2
bar:Cains
barset:MHAs3
bar:Giddings
barset:MHAs4
bar:Ogilvie
bar:Rylah
barset:MHAs5
PlotData=
width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift: anchor:till
bar:Best
from:1955 till:1956 color:LP text:"
from:1958 till:1959 color:LP text:"Amelia Best "
barset:MHAs
from:1955 till:1964 color:LP text:"Mabel Miller "
from:1962 till:1964 color:AL text:"Lynda Heaven "
bar:James
from:1976 till:1986 color:AL text:"
from:1992 till:2002 color:AL text:Gill James "
bar:Willey
from:1979 till:1981 color:AL text:"
from:1981 till:1982 color:ID text:"Mary Willey "
barset:MHAs2
from:1984 till:1986 color:LP text:"Carmel Holmes "
from:1986 till:2002 color:AL text:"Fran Bladel "
from:1986 till:2006 color:AL text:"Judy Jackson "
from:1989 till:1998 color:AG text:"Di Hollister "
from:1989 till:1998 color:AG text:"Christine Milne "
bar:Cains
from:1992 till:1996 color:LP text:"
from:1997 till:1998 color:LP text:"Carole Cains "
barset:MHAs3
from:1992 till:2010 color:LP text:"Sue Napier "
from:1992 till:2008 color:AG text:"Peg Putt "
from:1995 till:2002 color:LP text:"Denise Swan "
bar:Giddings
from:1996 till:1998 color:AL text:"
from:2002 till:2018 color:AL text:"Lara Giddings "
barset:MHAs4
from:1996 till:2009 color:AL text:"Paula Wriedt "
from:2002 till:2006 color:AL text:"Kathryn Hay "
from:2005 till:2010 color:AL text:"Heather Butler "
from:2006 till:2019 color:AL text:"Michelle O'Byrne "
from:2006 till:2010 color:AL text:"Lisa Singh "
from:2008 till:2019 color:AG text:"Cassy O'Connor "
from:2010 till:2019 color:LP text:"Elise Archer "
from:2010 till:2019 color:LP text:"Jacquie Petrusma "
from:2010 till:2019 color:AL text:"Rebecca White "
from:2014 till:2019 color:LP text:"Sarah Courtney "
bar:Ogilvie
from:2014 till:2018 color:AL text:"
from:2019 till:2019 color:ID text:"Madeleine Ogilvie "
bar:Rylah
from:2014 till:2018 color:LP
from:2019 till:2019 color:LP text:"Joan Rylah "
barset:MHAs5
from:2015 till:2018 color:AG text:"Andrea Dawkins "
from:2015 till:2019 color:AG text:"Rosalie Woodruff "
from:2018 till:2019 color:AL text:"Jen Butler "
from:2018 till:2019 color:AL text:"Anita Dow "
from:2018 till:2019 color:AL text:"Ella Haddad "
from:2018 till:2019 color:LP text:"Sue Hickey "
from:2018 till:2019 color:AL text:"Jennifer Houston "
from:2018 till:2019 color:AL text:"Alison Standen "
barset:skip