Politics, Death and Addiction: A Powerful Story of a Mother's Reaction to Her Daughter's Suicide by Carolyn Hirsh

Author:Carolyn Hirsh [Hirsh, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Psychology, Women, Family & Relationships, Personal Memoirs, Addiction, Biography & Autobiography, Parenting, Motherhood, Psychopathology
ISBN: 9781922175458
Google: WeDAngEACAAJ
Goodreads: 21892508
Publisher: Brolga Pub.
Published: 2014-01-15T12:39:29+00:00

My seat in the Legislative Council 2003

I was well regarded in this ‘new generation’ Labor Party caucus, considered an elder statesman, whose opinions were valued. Local lower house members would call into my office, next to the Legislative Council chamber, with its view of a brick wall covered with drainpipes.

‘Carolyn, would you look over this speech please?’

‘Whatever is the grievance debate?’

‘Come and have a coffee.’

I was proud to be appointed by the Parliament to the Drugs and Crime Prevention joint Parliamentary Committee, and to be elected its Chair.

I began my second ‘inaugural speech’ with:

‘...As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted some 10 years ago...’

I enjoyed preparing and presenting this speech — a unique opportunity to roam over a broad range of issues, and to acknowledge significant people in the Labor Party and my life

...I find [the Upper House] very different from my previous experience in what I could colloquially term ‘the people’s house’ – the Legislative Assembly – in the 50th and 51st parliaments between 1985 and 1992. This is most illustrious, with its cherubs, velvet and gold. It is a very beautiful place...

...Neither my father, Peter Murphy, nor my mother, Dorothy, could...vote for representatives in this chamber when I was a child. That is...extraordinary—that the privilege and limits to democracy... have continued for so long.

...I am one of the Murphys of Piangil – and I am very proud to be one of the Murphys of Piangil and to be in this place. My great-grandfather Michael Murphy came to Australia from Mallow in County Cork in 1840. He was from a landless, poor, Irish family.

And my great-grandmother Catherine Toland arrived on one of the so-called orphan ships, the Lady Kennaway, on 13 December 1848. She was with other young Irish women from the workhouses, and when they arrived here, they were called barefoot trollops and were treated extremely poorly by the society of the day. So you cannot see those people being part of this, then undemocratic, chamber...

...I want to finish by...talking about constitutional reform. I am looking forward to being a part of this chamber during this historical period of final democratisation, when this chamber will finally remove the last of the privileges that prevent proper representation – that is, every member will need to face the people at every election, as is proper in a democratic society...

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