Australian political figures yesterday paid tribute to the pioneering former Labor senator Susan Ryan, after her death was reported, praising her efforts to achieve equality and declaring that the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 would stand as her legacy.
Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese said Ryan, 77, had achieved “historic firsts” in a life “dedicated to women’s rights and equality.”
Speaking to reporters in Sydney, Albanese described Ryan as a “generous, warmhearted, committed progressive who made Australia a better country.”
The Sex Discrimination Act had “changed Australia in a way that was very radical at the time,” he added.
The act outlawed discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status and pregnancy.
Albanese recounted a conversation he had with Ryan about a month ago, saying she had been concerned about “the ongoing attacks against the 12 percent legislated increase in superannuation.”
“We had a great discussion, as we always did. She was positive, as she always was,” he said.
Ryan was the first woman to serve in a Labor federal Cabinet and later became the first Age Discrimination commissioner.
Tributes poured in, attesting to Ryan’s trailblazing role as a feminist and human rights campaigner and her political achievements as the Australian Capital Territory’s (ACT) first female senator, a position she held for 12 years.
Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, joined in the tributes on social media, saying she was “shocked and saddened” that the country had lost a feminist hero and Labor giant.
“She blazed the trail for Labor women, including me,” said Gillard, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2013.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued a statement saying the government extended its “heartfelt condolences” to Ryan’s family, saying she was “a groundbreaker who spent her life advocating for Australians who had been excluded from full participation in our national life.”
“Susan Ryan will be remembered as someone who sought to make our country bigger and more open to every citizen,” he said. “She leaves a legacy that will endure.”
Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, a Liberal, credited Ryan with being “a champion for justice all her life,” while former prime minister Kevin Rudd described Ryan as “a great reformer,” writing in a tweet: “Without Susan Ryan, there would have been no Sex Discrimination Act. The conservatives would never have done it.”
ACT Senator Katy Gallagher said it was “a really sad day.”
Additional reporting by agencies
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing