Women in the Queensland Legislative Assembly
There have been 93 women in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland since its establishment in 1860. Women have had the right to vote in the Assembly since 1905 and the right to stand as candidates since 1915.
The first successful female candidate for the Legislative Assembly was Irene Longman, who was elected as the member for Bulimba in 1929 representing the Country and Progressive National Party. She was defeated in 1932, and women were not represented again until 1966, when Labor's Vi Jordan won the seat of Ipswich West. Although Jordan was defeated in 1974, that year also saw two more women, Vicky Kippin of the National Party and Rosemary Kyburz of the Liberal Party, enter parliament.
1989 was considered a breakthrough year for women in the Queensland Parliament, as previously only 11 women had sat in the parliament. The first female minister was Yvonne Chapman in 1986. In 1991, Joan Sheldon became the first woman to lead a Party, and in 1996, she became the first woman Treasurer. In 2012, Fiona Simpson became the first woman Speaker. The first non-major party woman, independent Liz Cunningham, was elected as the member for Gladstone in 1995. Since then, four other women, Dorothy Pratt, Rosa Lee Long, Elisa Roberts, and Sandy Bolton have won seats for non-major parties or as independents. Pratt, Lee Long and Roberts were originally elected for One Nation, although Pratt and Roberts subsequently retained their seats as independents. Only two Indigenous Australian women, Leeanne Enoch and Cynthia Lui, have been elected to the Queensland parliament.
Anna Bligh was the first woman to become Premier, succeeding Peter Beattie in 2007. In 2009 she became the first woman in Australia to win an election as Premier. In 2015, the two highest ministers in the Queensland government were both women with Annastacia Palaszczuk as Premier and Jackie Trad as Deputy Premier, the second in Australian political history. Palaszczuk was also the first woman to lead an opposition into government. The Palaszczuk Ministry was the first female dominated government in Australian history with 8 out of the 14 ministers being women.
Although women have been Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 1966, they are still under-represented as a proportion compared to men. In 2001, Queensland held the record for the proportion of women in the parliament with 33 out of 89 members being women. Since then the proportion of women have fallen. There were 25 women out of 89 members in the 2015 Queensland Parliament.
List of women in the Queensland Legislative 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 by-election.Timeline
ImageSize = width:1100 height:auto barincrement:12
PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:170 left:20
AlignBars = early
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1925 till:2025
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1925
Colors =
id:CP value:drabgreen legend: Country Progressive & National Party
id:AL value:red legend: Australian Labor Party
id:NP value:teal legend: National Party of Australia
id:LP value:blue legend: Liberal Party of Australia
id:ON value:yellow legend: Pauline Hanson's One Nation
id:LN value:darkblue legend: Liberal National Party of Queensland
id:ID value:gray legend: Independent
Legend = columns:3 left:150 top:50 columnwidth:200
BarData =
barset:MLAs
bar:Nelson
barset:MLAs2
bar:Gamin
bar:Bird
bar:Clark
barset:MLAs3
bar:Simpson
barset:MLAs4
bar:Pratt
barset:MLAs5
bar:Roberts
barset:MLAs6
bar:Menkens
bar:Stuckey
bar:Darling
bar:Jones
barset:MLAs7
bar:Grace
barset:MLAs8
bar:Farmer
barset:MLAs9
PlotData=
width:6 align:left fontsize:S shift: anchor:till
barset:MLAs
from:1929 till:1932 color:CP text:"Irene Longman "
from:1966 till:1974 color:AL text:"Vi Jordan "
from:1974 till:1980 color:NP text:"Vicky Kippin "
from:1974 till:1983 color:LP text:"Rosemary Kyburz "
bar:Nelson
from:1980 till:1983 color:LP text:"
from:1986 till:1989 color:NP text:"Beryce Nelson "
barset:MLAs2
from:1983 till:1989 color:NP text:"Yvonne Chapman "
from:1983 till:1989 color:NP text:"Leisha Harvey "
from:1983 till:1995 color:AL text:"Anne Warner "
from:1986 till:1998 color:NP text:"Di McCauley "
bar:Gamin
from:1988 till:1989 color:NP text:"
from:1992 till:2001 color:NP text:"Judy Gamin "
bar:Bird
from:1989 till:1998 color:AL text:"Lorraine Bird "
bar:Clark
from:1989 till:1995 color:AL text:"
from:1998 till:2006 color:AL text:"Lesley Clark "
barset:MLAs3
from:1989 till:2004 color:AL text:"Wendy Edmond "
from:1989 till:1995 color:AL text:"Laurel Power "
from:1989 till:1995 color:AL text:"Molly Robson "
from:1989 till:2012 color:AL text:"Judy Spence "
from:1989 till:1997 color:AL text:"Margaret Woodgate "
from:1990 till:2004 color:LP text:"Joan Sheldon "
from:1992 till:2004 color:AL text:"Merri Rose "
bar:Simpson
from:1992 till:2008 color:NP text:"
from:2008 till:2021 color:LN text:"Fiona Simpson "
barset:MLAs4
from:1995 till:2012 color:AL text:"Anna Bligh "
from:1995 till:2015 color:ID text:"Liz Cunningham "
from:1995 till:1998 color:LP text:"Lyn Warwick "
from:1995 till:1998 color:NP text:"Naomi Wilson "
from:1997 till:2009 color:AL text:"Linda Lavarch "
from:1998 till:2012 color:AL text:"Julie Attwood "
from:1998 till:2012 color:AL text:"Desley Boyle "
from:1998 till:2006 color:AL text:"Nita Cunningham "
from:1998 till:2012 color:AL text:"Lindy Nelson-Carr "
bar:Pratt
from:1998 till:1999 color:ON text:"
from:1999 till:2012 color:ID text:"Dorothy Pratt "
barset:MLAs5
from:1998 till:2012 color:AL text:"Karen Struthers "
from:2000 till:2020 color:AL text:"Jo-Ann Miller "
from:2001 till:2009 color:AL text:"Bonny Barry "
from:2001 till:2006 color:AL text:"Liddy Clark "
from:2001 till:2012 color:AL text:"Peta-Kaye Croft "
from:2001 till:2012 color:AL text:"Jan Jarratt "
from:2001 till:2012 color:AL text:"Margaret Keech "
from:2001 till:2009 color:ON text:"Rosa Lee Long "
from:2001 till:2012 color:AL text:"Carolyn Male "
from:2001 till:2006 color:AL text:"Cate Molloy "
from:2001 till:2012 color:AL text:"Rachel Nolan "
from:2001 till:2004 color:AL text:"Anita Phillips "
from:2001 till:2009 color:AL text:"Dianne Reilly "
bar:Roberts
from:2001 till:2002 color:ON text:"
from:2002 till:2006 color:ID text:"Elisa Roberts "
barset:MLAs6
from:2001 till:2004 color:AL text:"Christine Scott "
from:2001 till:2015 color:AL text:"Desley Scott "
from:2001 till:2012 color:AL text:"Christine Smith "
from:2001 till:2012 color:AL text:"Barbara Stone "
from:2001 till:2012 color:AL text:"Carryn Sullivan "
bar:Menkens
from:2004 till:2008 color:NP text:"
from:2008 till:2015 color:LN text:"Rosemary Menkens "
bar:Stuckey
from:2004 till:2008 color:LP text:"
from:2008 till:2020 color:LN text:"Jann Stuckey "
bar:Darling
from:2006 till:2012 color:AL text:"Vicky Darling "
bar:Jones
from:2006 till:2012 color:AL text:"
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Kate Jones "
barset:MLAs7
from:2006 till:2012 color:AL text:"Betty Kiernan "
from:2006 till:2021 color:AL text:"Annastacia Palaszczuk "
from:2006 till:2012 color:AL text:"Lillian van Litsenburg "
bar:Grace
from:2007 till:2012 color:AL text:"
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Grace Grace "
barset:MLAs8
from:2009 till:2021 color:LN text:"Ros Bates "
from:2009 till:2017 color:LN text:"Tracy Davis "
bar:Farmer
from:2009 till:2012 color:AL text:"
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Di Farmer "
barset:MLAs9
from:2009 till:2012 color:AL text:"Mandy Johnstone "
from:2009 till:2012 color:AL text:"Mary-Anne O'Neill "
from:2012 till:2017 color:LN text:"Verity Barton "
from:2012 till:2015 color:LN text:"Lisa France "
from:2012 till:2021 color:LN text:"Deb Frecklington "
from:2012 till:2015 color:LN text:"Anne Maddern "
from:2012 till:2015 color:LN text:"Kerry Millard "
from:2012 till:2015 color:LN text:"Freya Ostapovitch "
from:2012 till:2015 color:LN text:"Saxon Rice "
from:2012 till:2017 color:LN text:"Tarnya Smith "
from:2012 till:2021 color:AL text:"Jackie Trad "
from:2014 till:2021 color:AL text:"Yvette D'Ath "
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Nikki Boyd "
from:2015 till:2017 color:AL text:"Leanne Donaldson "
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Leeanne Enoch "
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Shannon Fentiman "
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Julieanne Gilbert "
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Jennifer Howard "
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Brittany Lauga "
from:2015 till:2021 color:LN text:"Ann Leahy "
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Leanne Linard "
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Coralee O'Rourke "
from:2015 till:2021 color:AL text:"Joan Pease "
from:2017 till:2021 color:ID text:"Sandy Bolton "
from:2017 till:2021 color:AL text:"Cynthia Lui "
from:2017 till:2021 color:AL text:"Melissa McMahon "
from:2017 till:2021 color:AL text:"Corrine McMillan "
from:2017 till:2021 color:AL text:"Charis Mullen "
from:2017 till:2021 color:AL text:"Jess Pugh "
from:2017 till:2021 color:AL text:"Kim Richards "
from:2017 till:2021 color:AL text:"Meaghan Scanlon "
from:2017 till:2021 color:LN text:"Simone Wilson "
from:2020 till:2021 color:LN text:"Laura Gerber "
barset:skip