Joan Child
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The Honourable Joan Child AO |
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|---|---|
| Member of the Australian Parliament for Henty |
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In office 18 May 1974 – 13 December 1975 |
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| Preceded by | Max Fox |
| Succeeded by | Ken Aldred |
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In office 18 October 1980 – 19 February 1990 |
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| Preceded by | Ken Aldred |
| Succeeded by | Division abolished |
| 19th Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives | |
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In office 11 February 1986 – 28 August 1989 |
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| Preceded by | Dr Harry Jenkins |
| Succeeded by | Leo McLeay |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Gloria Joan Liles Olle 3 August 1921 Yackandandah, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | 23 February 2013 (aged 91) Melbourne |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
Joan Child, AO (3 August 1921 – 23 February 2013) was an Australian politician. She was the first woman to be Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives. Up until the election of Anna Burke on 9 October 2012, she was the only female Speaker of the lower house.
Gloria Joan Liles Olle was born in Yackandandah, Victoria in 1921, daughter of Warren Olle, a postmaster, and his wife Hilda née Seedsman. She attended Camberwell Girls Grammar School. She married Hal Child, a business manager, who was dismissed when working in Tasmania for stealing ; but he died suddenly in the mid-1960s, leaving her a widow with five sons (Peter, Andrew, Geoff, Gary and Roger) to raise, the eldest of them 17 years old and the youngest only seven. To keep the family fed and clothed, she worked in factories, shops, as a cleaner and as a cook. When the youngest boy left school, she joined the entourage of future Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns, first as a campaign volunteer and then as a liaison officer.
A member of the Australian Labor Party, Child was elected to the House for the seat of Henty, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, in 1974, having narrowly failed to win the seat in 1972. She was the first female Labor member of the House, and only the fourth woman elected to the House in its history. After less than two years, she was defeated in the landslide Liberal victory in 1975. Her attempt to regain the seat in 1977 failed, but she won it back in 1980 and continued to hold it until her retirement in 1990.
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