Speeches

Thursday, 20 November 2025

Catherine Helen Spence Oration

It is a pleasure to be here this evening to deliver the Catherine Helen Spence Oration for 2025.

I thank the Unitarian Church for their kind invitation and Kris Hanna for his persistence.

Given the breadth of Catherine Helen Spence’s interests and causes, and her effectiveness in pursuing them, there are any number of organisations in South Australia which might have provided a suitable home for an oration in her name.

The fact that the Unitarians have chosen to do so speaks to Catherine Helen Spence’s singularity, not least as a Unitarian preacher, and the role of SA Unitarians in encouraging exploration, through the medium of the oration, of “the nexus between liberal religious values and public policy in Australia.”[i]

At this point, I should caveat my contribution by stating explicitly something which many of you already know, and that is the long-standing convention that governors do not involve themselves in either politics or policy.

I note that previous orators have ranged widely and I propose to do the same.

I assure you, nevertheless, that I shall have something to say; some of it personal, some of it by way of reflections after four years as Governor.

Personal and vice-regal interest

The fact is I have greatly enjoyed the process of researching Catherine Helen Spence and of thinking not only about the times in which she lived and how she influenced them, but her contemporary relevance.

Modern day Governors have the traditional constitutional, ceremonial and community roles as well as a broader remit to promote their state, including overseas.

I have the immense privilege of meeting people across the length and breadth of our state and of being able to gain an understanding of our past, our present and our future and of the South Australians who have brought us to where we are today.

Governors, to some extent at least, can set their own priorities.

I have six, and they are to support:

. the development of leadership capability

. civics education in schools;

. South Australia’s international engagement;

. gender equality;

. Aboriginal reconciliation; and

. local businesses.

Three of these – leadership, civics in schools and gender equality – are particularly relevant to what I want to say this evening on the subject of Catherine Helen Spence Then and Now.

Helen Jones, historian and my aunt

My prime source for “Then” is a book[ii] written by my late aunt, my mother’s eldest sister, the historian Dr Helen Jones AM. Its title In Her Own Name – a History of Women in South Australia from 1836 is followed by the all-important words Including the story of women’s suffrage.

I say a prime source because as a schoolgirl and university student, I regularly visited my aunt, uncle and cousins who lived nearby, often in the company of my mother and younger siblings Christine and Stuart.

As we arrived, Helen would emerge from her immaculately tidy study where she had been preparing meticulously researched entries for the Australian Dictionary of Biography, documenting the lives of South Australian women, 31 of them in all, or working on her book.

It was through time spent with Helen that I came to appreciate what an extraordinary woman Catherine Helen Spence was and how influential she was in South Australian public life, particularly in the reforms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Catherine Helen Spence was a central figure in Helen’s history of women in South Australia and the book itself took years to research and write.

My cousin Jennifer recently told me that one evening when Helen was setting the table for dinner, her husband Geoff remarked that she might as well set a place for Catherine Helen Spence.

I doubt he meant it as a thought experiment, intriguing though that may have been; it was more a reflection of Helen’s single-minded preoccupation with her subject, possibly leading to an occasional sense of exasperation on my uncle’s part.

Once published, in 1986, under the title: In her own name -women in South Australian history, the book became the definitive history of the legal emancipation of South Australian women and its political and social implications.

Who was Catherine Helen Spence?

Although some of you here this evening will know a great deal about Catherine Helen Spence, that won’t necessarily be true of everyone. In fact, when I mentioned to a woman in her thirties last week that I would be speaking tonight and on what subject, she asked, rather apologetically if I could explain who Spence was.

Briefly then: Catherine Helen Spence was born in Scotland in 1825 and came to South Australia with her family as a teenager.

She has been described [iii] as “one of the most remarkable women in South Australia’s early history, a powerful and persuasive speaker and writer who dedicated herself to public service, becoming a household name during her own lifetime” and indeed a national figure.

Spence worked as a governess, teacher and author, publishing several novels and, most unusually for a woman, wrote for newspapers. She helped found the Boarding-Out Society, finding homes for “orphaned, destitute and reformed delinquent children”, as they were described, visiting them regularly and bringing up three successive families of orphans in her own home[iv].

She became a member of the State Children’s Council, established in 1886, and later a member of the Destitute Board. She took an interest in children’s education and wrote a text book The Laws We Live Under. In addition to preaching with the Unitarian church at home, she lectured and preached in the United States.

In 1895 she was appointed to the Commission of Inquiry into the management and condition of the Adelaide Hospital, the first woman in Australia to participate in an official commission.

In 1897 she became the first woman in Australia to stand for election – to the Federal Convention which was engaged in the drafting of Australia’s Constitution. She was unsuccessful, but not deterred from contributing to public debate on electoral reform and the benefits of proportional representation, which she termed “effective voting”.

Spence was involved in the founding, or contributed to the early development, of a number of organisations in South Australia particular to her times, but also several, such as the National Council for Women, the Country Women’s Association and Red Cross, which have found enduring relevance and community support.

I will have more to say about Spence’s interest in children’s education and their safety later in my address.

Women’s suffrage and the right to stand for Parliament

But first back to Helen Jones’ book. A revised and up-dated edition was published in 1994 to coincide with the centenary of South Australian women being granted the right to vote and to stand for Parliament, something which Catherine Helen Spence had advocated for.

In the preface to the 1994 edition, Helen observed that “the emphasis has shifted from the basic right of women to vote towards the need for more women to be in Parliament.[v]”

She described South Australian history as “distinctive” and its women’s history as having been “distinguished by pioneering changes in laws relating to women and by their own continuous history of service.”

Among the many women involved in organising the centenary celebrations was my late mother, Jennifer Cashmore, who chaired the committee which commissioned the tapestries recognising “the efforts of South Australians who regardless of sex or social and political differences, were united by a common desire for justice and equality of opportunity.”[vi]

The two tapestries hang in the House of Assembly chamber, Mary Lee and Elizabeth Webb Nicholls and Catherine Helen Spence’s faces prominent as key figures in the campaign for women’s suffrage.

My mother, Jennifer Cashmore

My mother served as a Member of the House of Assembly, only the third woman to be elected to that House, from 1977 until her retirement in 1993. She was the second woman in the state to serve as a minister - in the Tonkin government of 1979 to 1982, and during that term the only woman in Cabinet and the only woman in the Lower House.

On 17 February 1993, Jennifer Cashmore moved a motion in the House of Assembly, which was carried the same day, noting the significance of the centenary of suffrage and resolving to dedicate space for the tapestries.

I quote from the Hansard record of her speech[vii]

“The tapestries will acknowledge the role of Parliament in pioneering reforms that have benefited women, including the right to own property, enshrined in the Married Women’s Property Act 1884; the right to vote and the right to stand for Parliament, enshrined in the Constitution Act Amendment Act 1894; the right of mothers to have equal rights with fathers in the guardianship of their children, through the Guardianship of Infants Act 1940; and the personal and industrial rights of equal opportunity, enshrined in the Equal Opportunity Act 1975.”

My mother took the view that “the more people can think politically, the more power they have to influence their future in ways of their own choosing”[viii].

She achieved a great deal, both in government and in opposition during her 16 years in Parliament.

A public servant wrote to me recently to tell me that at her first Australian Health ministers meeting in 1980 she moved a motion that all meetings be smoke free from that time on and that under her leadership South Australia was the first to create a health promotion function within the Health Commission.

From time to time, members of the public mention to me her work on radiation protection, the state bank collapse, Wilpena Pound, palliative care or simply how she served them as their local member.

In the debate on a condolence motion in the House of Assembly following her death in June last year, it was said of her[ix] that she was the best parliamentary orator of her time. She certainly understood the power of the spoken word, just as Catherine Helen Spence did through her preaching, speechmaking and lecturing.

My generation

My sister, Christine, brother Stuart and I were encouraged by both our parents to speak and debate, around the dining table, at school, and as we started to pursue our chosen careers. Christine became a barrister, Stuart a hospital chaplain and later a lecturer in chaplaincy. I chose diplomacy.

Although I joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1985, in the first graduate intake in which there were more women than men, as a woman going to the NSW Bar in 1989, Christine was unusual and, to her surprise, treated as a curiosity. She was never led by a female senior counsel, though once appointed silk herself led younger women. Now, as a judge of the NSW Court of Appeal, she still notices how few women’s voices are heard as advocates at the appellate level.

As a Commonwealth public servant for 36 years, I count myself fortunate to have been in a work environment where I heard the sound of women’s voices as well as men’s and to have made my career at a time when it has become more normal for women to have the confidence to speak and not to have others speak on their behalf.

Women in Leadership – Parliament

Despite South Australia’s world leading suffrage reforms of 1894, over 130 years later we remain the only state not to have had a female Premier, a situation my mother tried, and failed, to rectify during her parliamentary career.

We now, however, see a very different South Australian Parliament than the one Catherine Helen Spence knew. Slow start notwithstanding, there are 17 women in the 47-seat House of Assembly and 11 women in the 22-seat Legislative Council. Following a ministerial reshuffle in September, for the first time in South Australia there are now more women in Cabinet than men[x].

Lest we think the job now done, it should be noted that at 36%, the proportion of women in our Lower House sits well below

that of the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, which has a unicameral system.[xi]

Yet just as Catherine Helen Spence’s ongoing advocacy on behalf of women and the example she set provided encouragement to the women of her times, so too does the example of women who are elected as local councillors and members of state and federal parliaments in the twenty first century.

And just as the South Australian Suffragists sought practical ways to advance their cause, Pathways to Politics for Women, a national program, run in South Australia by the University of Adelaide provides practical training, workshops, mentoring and career support to women interested in running for election.

The Melbourne-based McKinnon Institute helps prepare women and men, once elected, for appointment to the ministry.

I have had opportunities to support both programs as Governor and have been pleased to see graduates from the Pathways program selected as candidates for the state election next March.

In fact, two South Australian participants in this year’s McKinnon program, Rhiannon Pearce and Lucy Hood, were unable to attend their graduation in Melbourne because I was swearing them in as ministers on the same day.

I am a firm believer in the power of encouragement, the demystification of process and the acquisition of skills and experience to provide pathways for women to take on leadership roles which enable us to draw on the talents of our whole population.

Women in Leadership – DFAT

As Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2016 to 2021, the first woman to hold that role, I was responsible for leading the implementation of a Women in Leadership strategy developed under my predecessor Peter Varghese in response to advocacy by women in the department.

They had realised that thirty years of recruiting roughly equal proportions of women and men as diplomatic trainees had not flowed to the leadership of the department and through a process of consultation a strategy was developed to bring about change.

Although this had broad support across the department, at times there was pushback necessitating deep listening and open dialogue.

What began as a focus on women in leadership developed into a broader diversity and inclusion strategy and the adoption of ways of working which contributed to a more positive work culture for all staff and, I believe, a more effective foreign service.

Women, in particular, gained confidence that they could balance work and family responsibilities at levels of seniority which matched their experience and capability instead of holding themselves back out of a concern that higher level responsibility would be unmanageable.

During my term as Secretary, and with strong support from my ministers Julie Bishop and Marise Payne, female heads of mission – ambassadors and high commissioners – went from around 25 percent of the total to 45 percent.

Though again I note, there is more to be done. No woman has yet served as Australia’s Ambassador to the United States of America or High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Civics

The entry on Catherine Helen Spence in Trailblazers: 100 Inspiring South Australian Women recounts her saying at her 80^th birthday party:

“I am a new woman and I know it. I mean an awakened woman. Awakened to the sense of capacity and responsibility, not merely to family and the household, but to the State; to be used not for her own selfish interests, but that the world may be glad that she had been born.[xii]”

As Governor, I have the privilege of meeting and getting to know many women who contribute a great deal to the life of our state in ways small and large.

During our regular visits to high schools, Rod and I see growing numbers of girls and young women taking on leadership roles, ironically often now in greater numbers than boys and young men, “giving back” as they describe it, and becoming engaged active citizens, including in their wider communities.

I see women being prepared to be “the first” and making it easier for the women who come after them, just as Dame Roma Mitchell, South Australia’s, first female Governor, and indeed the first woman in Australia to hold a vice-regal role, did for Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, our second female Governor, and just as Marj did for me, the third.

The same can absolutely be said for Katherine Bennell-Pegg, the first Australian woman to qualify as an astronaut, and named just last week as South Australia’s Australian of the Year. How wonderful it would be to see her able to carry out a space mission for which she has trained, inspiring future generations of Australians, young and old, to reach for the stars and supercharging space-related research and the acquisition of STEM skills.

“For purpose”

Although space travel would have been beyond Catherine Helen Spence’s ken, there is much she would recognise about the interplay between elected governments and not-for-profit, or as many of them prefer it, “for purpose”, organisations in South Australia in the provision of services to those in need.

Obviously, there has been an enormous increase in the provision of taxpayer-funded education, health and social services and the state now carries a heavier burden than it did a century ago, but still there are gaps and still they are filled at the instigation of people in our community who see a need and want to do something about it.

Present-day versions of Catherine Helen Spence. I see them in many of the 180 or so organisations of which I am patron.

In Impact 100 funding projects to support children in state care find work and housing when they reach the age of 18, improve the mental health of communities on Eyre Peninsula, and provide after-school activities for young people in Milang.

In organisations, such as the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation, which raise funds for medical research.

In Operations Flinders and Ice Factor which work with disengaged young people and help them discover a sense of purpose.

In Cystic Fibrosis SA which helps people with CF find pathways to live longer, healthier lives.

And all, or mostly all, funded through donations from South Australians, whose generosity continues to amaze me.

It won’t surprise you to learn that in 1890 Catherine Helen Spence presented a paper on “Charity in South Australia” to an Australasian conference on charity in Melbourne.[xiii]

Education and the safety of women and children

I mentioned that I would return to education and the safety of women and children, issues which Catherine Helen Spence, with others, championed.

She did not just use her voice. She wrote prodigiously. In the 1870s, this included an editorial and leading article in the Register, the state’s first newspaper, which focused attention on “the terror suffered by unknown numbers of women and children at the hands of their husbands and fathers” and argued for wider legal protection for wives.[xiv]

Reform came slowly, as we know.

In the early 1900s, Catherine Helen Spence wrote an article titled “Children at Play: Playgrounds and Play Centres” [xv] in which she observed:

“The children were learning self-respect, through the respect that was shown to them, and the respect they were led to show to others, not only to their teachers and superiors, but to each other.

Helen Jones draws the conclusion that “Spence’s quick understanding of the practical implications of education, which in its widest sense was her main concern, enabled her to see the deeper value of play.”[xvi]

This was the era of the founding of the Kindergarten Union in South Australia and followed work by Caroline Emily Clark and Catherine Helen Spence and others who “recognized the crucial nature of child health, welfare and education both in humanitarian terms and its bearing on the future of the society …. and enlisted government support.”[xvii]

These matters still concern us today and are central to the work of the Child Development Council, an independent body established in 2018 to main and review South Australia’s Outcomes Framework for Children and Young People.[xviii]

Embedded in the Framework is the Charter for Children and Young People, and Rod and I, as patron, are pleased to host young Charter Ambassadors each year at Government House.

As you would expect, there is a long history of vice-regal patronage of organisations which provide a wide range of support to children. Modern day examples include Can: Do 4 Kids, Childhood Cancer Association, Children’s Book Council, Children’s Week Association, Legacy, Advancing Youth Foundation, Operation Flinders, Sammy D, Playgroup SA and Youth Opportunities.

Royal Commissions

In our constitutional role, governors and the governor-general issue Letters Patent setting the terms of reference for Royal Commissions, the highest form of inquiry on matters of public importance, and we receive interim and final reports from the Royal Commissioners.

The decision to establish a Royal Commission is, of course, taken by the elected government, which is also responsible for responding to the report’s recommendations.

So far during my term as governor, two Royal Commissions have been established in South Australia: The Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care led by the Honourable Julia Gillard, which reported in 2023; and the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence led by Natasha Stott Despoja, which reported in August of this year.

If Catherine Helen Spence’s advocacy for reform shows us the difference good, evidence-based, public policy made in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, then, albeit in a different context, the work of both Royal Commissioners points the way to better public policy in the twenty-first.

The terms of reference of the Early Childhood Education and Care Royal Commission were crafted to be forward looking, with a focus on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, the introduction of universal quality preschool programs for three- and four-year-olds and access to out of school care.

In responding to the report’s recommendations, the Premier and Minister for Education said “The need for action is undeniable…. Our children are not faring as well as their counterparts elsewhere in Australia, and these children live in families across all walks of life.”[xix]

The Government has moved quickly to establish an Office for Early Childhood Development and is rolling out in stages from next year 15 hours of preschool for all three-year-olds. It has undertaken to work to build a nation-leading universal early childhood development system that connects families to opportunities to support healthy child development.

The Government is expected to respond soon to the 136 recommendations contained in the report of the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence which was presented in August. The Report is subtitled “With courage: South Australia’s vision beyond violence.”

Two paragraphs leap out at me:

“The Commission has heard one message loud and clear: South Australia – once a national leader in tackling domestic, family and sexual violence – has lost its way.

This moment is a call to action. It is a chance for South Australia to reclaim its leadership, to rise to the challenge, and to honour the vision set by the courageous women who ignited this work over 100 years ago.”[xx]

Catherine Helen Spence was one of those women. To answer the question left hanging at her 80^th birthday party, we can be very glad today that she was born and took the path of a new woman.

Conclusion

As Helen Jones pointed out, at the time of South Australia’s Centenary in 1936, Dr Helen Mayo, a prominent medical practitioner and the second woman to gain a medical degree from the University of Adelaide, said:

“South Australia has been fortunate in its citizens, both men and women, who took the long view, who built up for the future, and who gave of themselves unsparingly for the common good.”[xxi]

With the state’s bicentenary in 2036, it is worth thinking now, as a community about what we want to be able to say in 11 years’ time that we have achieved, and doing all we can to ensure our children are set up to succeed and that we end domestic, family and sexual violence.

Catherine Helen Spence then. South Australians now and in future.

[i] https://unitariansa.org.au/2018/10/catherine-helen-spence-oration-2018-professor-marion-maddox/

[ii] In Her Own Name – Women in South Australian History Helen Jones 1986. Revised and updated and published as In Her Own Name - A History of Women in South Australia from 1836 Helen Jones, 1994, 2020

[iii] Trailblazers – 100 Inspiring South Australian Women Carolyn Collins and Roy Eccleston 2019 p.248

[iv] Jones 2020 p.43

[v] Jones 1994 p.xi

[vi] A Woman’s Place is in the House – South Australian Women’s Suffrage Centenary Tapestries October 1994

[vii] Hansard House of Assembly 17 February 1993 p.2088

[viii] A Chance in Life Jennifer Cashmore 1991

[ix] https://hansardsearch.parliament.sa.gov.au/daily/lh/2024-06-27/10?sid=60ed980b5c8a4764a9 14:44 Koutsantonis

[x] https://www.premier.sa.gov.au/media-releases/news-items/record-number-of-women-in-new-ministry

[xi]https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_departments/Parliamentary_Library/Research/FlagPost/2025/September/GendercompositionofAustralianparliamentsbyparty

[xii] Collins and Eccleston ibid

[xiii] Jones 2020, p.415

[xiv] ibid pp10-12