Speech to Romsey.

  So proud to be Australian.

 

Leonie Christopherson AM

 

…. Once upon a time - in 1840 - a group of American women accompanied their husbands to an anti-slavery congress in London. They were told they could enter the congress if they sat behind a curtain and said nothing.

They went ballistic. They vowed then and there to create their own women's congress and they did. They were very active in the United States for forty years and in 1888 the National Council of Women went global, forming the International Council of Women (ICW). Australia was the sixth nation to join. We had a group of the movement in Sydney in 1896, Tasmania in 1899 and the Victorian National Council of Women was founded here in Melbourne 1902.

At that first Melbourne meeting they wanted four things. The right to vote, equal pay for equal work, police matrons and separate treatment for epileptics - who were treated along with the insane. Barbaric! It's only taken us 106 years but yes, we do have the vote, yes legislation is in place for equal pay, yes, we do have Chief Police Commissioner Christine Nixon and yes, those far-sighted women built the Talbot Colony for Epileptics in Clayton.

So what do we do? Our nickname is ‘STIRRERS WITH STYLE' and we are like your worst mother-in-law, telling government when they've got it wrong. We're just as quick to tell them when they've got it right. We are STRICTLY non-party political and non-sectarian.

Some of our initiatives over the past years have been:

Building 3 water tanks in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. Stacks of rain up there but nothing to catch it in and the women were walking 25 k a day in horrendous mountainous terrain to carry water.

• Training 22 women in South India, widowed by the tsunami to be tailoresses and providing each with a sewing machine. No such thing as widows' pensions in India, folks, and some of the women were turning to prostitution just to feed their children. Now they each have a cottage industry!
• Producing an asthma awareness leaflet for women over 50 in three languages, English, Greek and Italian. Women over 50 have a very high death rate from asthma, and 60% of those deaths can be prevented with good asthma management.
• Producing an information leaflet for rural and remote families on what to take to a city hospital, in 5 languages.
• Distributing 30,000 information booklets on the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of contraception. Ignorance is not bliss in this matter.

So how did an advertising copywriter who left school at 16 become the head of a peak women's organization and proudly be part of Australia's delegations to International women's meetings in Helsinki. Fiji, Auckland, Perth, Morocco and Kiev?

(You need to know that for the conference in Morocco, I invested in all new underwear - just in case a desert sheik came out of the Sahara and wanted to buy me. Huge waste of investment – didn't happen. Maybe it was because my husband accompanied me?)

How does someone who was forever being sent out of school for talking – be asked to speak to you today? To find out - let's talk about ‘Women and Leadership'.

Women make natural leaders because they can do six things at once. How many times have you heard the man in your life say ‘ Hang on – I can only do ONE thing at a time!

I'd like to share some of the management strategies I've picked up during my somewhat unusual life. If you're happily retired maybe you could pass them on to your daughters and granddaughters.

Such as: Always try to lead from behind as all the best leaders have been dogsbodies or ‘gofers'.. Never ride rough shod over subordinates. but treat them like the gold they are and they will walk through fire for you.

Because of my husband's army career, we moved twenty times. Army salaries were very low then and I would try to find work wherever we lived. I've had eleven different paid jobs in many different locations in addition to the volunteer positions.. This meant I continually had to break into a new organization. As a new kid on the block, I would try to make an impact by arriving at work the same time as the cleaners and the maintenance crew, and by making friends with (in those days) the switch girls and the receptionists. THEY RUN THE BUILDING. Not the Executives.

One of the biggest problems I did have with some organizations was always being the newcomer. “She hasn't served her apprenticeship – what would she know?' It's as if you are penalised for moving and Australia has a very mobile workforce. I comforted myself with the wonderful phrase ‘ the penetration of an innocent intellect' meaning an outsider or newcomer can often see things more clearly than the old guard.

I completed school at 16 because my parents moved (my father was with Mobil Oil) so we were transferred to live in 5 different states in Australia and I attended 5 different schools and actually gained a year to finish at 16. My parents were in despair as to what to do with me as I had failed 7 th grade sums. My mother confided to a friend, who happened to be head of David Jones' advertising “We don't know what to do with her. She's very good at English, but she exaggerates all the time.' “Put her into advertising!' The friend advised. ‘Put her into advertising!' The problem is, everything I write today still sounds like a DJs ad. A bit ‘twee'.. natty little knick-knacks to buy for tiny tots, come buy, come buy. And I have an ongoing addiction to alliteration.

At 19 I was Advertising Manager of a Department Store. At twenty I married into the army.

There is no finer training for public office than having been an army wife. Our Patron, the Governor General's wife, Her Excellency Marlena Jeffery agrees with me. I thought I had it tough with three boys under three but because of her twins, she had three boys under two! You have to be adaptable - and able to deal with any situation. As I said it's been an adventure to have lived in 20 different locations, 5 different countries, 5 different states in Australia. But you are virtually a single mother as the men are away 75% of the time. I found out years later that mine used to actually volunteer to go on missions to escape the chaos on the home front, ‘Send me Sir, Send me, I'LL fight the enemy..' You have to be able to fix a fuse, change a tyre, bury a dead cat and then pop on the hat and gloves to take tea at Government House. I like to think I did it all with style and panache - particularly the dead cat. I believe in destiny and I'm sure my weird and wonderful life has led me to this job.

In 1998 I became a member of the Board of the National Council of Women of Australia, in charge of their publications, PR and Show Biz.

In July 2000 12 of us from NCW Australia went to the International Council of Women General Assembly in Helsinki. 'Oh Wow' I thought my first international assembly – ‘I'm going to learn so much from these women - founded in the States, HQ in Paris – all proceedings were simultaneously in English and French - oh wow!' WRONG. We were the movers and the shakers - any initiatives from the floor came from us, NZ, Singapore or Canada.

We do not realize here in Australia how good we are at what we do - I think its because we are so good at managing distance. If you see Australia superimposed on a map of Europe it stretches from Dublin to Beirut. It takes 4 hours to fly from coast to coast and we manage this huge country extremely well. When it was announced in Helsinki that the next ICW Assembly would be held in Perth WA in 2003 some of the Northern Hemisphere women said to me ' But we've heard it can take 30 hours to fly to your country!' and we said 'SO-ooooooooo! We do it all the time AND uphill!' After Helsinki four of our delegation came back with positions in the international organisation. After tabling our Australian publications, I was made world editor of their Newsletter producing it here in Australia in three languages, French, Spanish and English. We were so proud to be Australian. I think the fact that we were a colony at the end of a long chain of communication from England has made us self-reliant and innovative too. We don't say ‘how will we do it – we just do it'. Be proud to be Australian.

I need to explain the three levels of the National Council of Women. Victorians belong to the State level. Organisations such as Soroptimists, Guides, the Salvos would have two votes through their two delegates. Or you can be a private individual or Associate member with one vote. The State Council can advocate on State issues to its Parliament.

One issue Victoria wants is legislation for ‘lights on when driving on rural roads' – it is compulsory in Western Australia and does save lives. Each State President is on the National Board of which I am immediate Past President. That national Board can advocate on Federal issues and internationally we can take issues of concern to the International Council of Women (ICW). ICW has Category A Consultative Status at the UN – this means we have permanent representatives in New York, Vienna and Geneva. So you have an avenue of action from this room to the UN. A hot line in fact.

A few years ago this is precisely what happened. Victoria has a very active branch in Central Gippsland. One of their members said 'I'm really concerned in the worldwide trading of trafficking in body parts - particularly those of children.' I thought, I'm not sure a lot of it goes on in Gippsland, but she meant internationally. So she moved a Resolution that the State Council take the matter to the National Board who then took it to the International Council who all agreed it was a reprehensible trade and took it to UN where it was acted upon. All this from a farmhouse in Gippsland. National Council members in Geelong supported the issue of women to serve on juries – and in 1966 they achieved it and Geelong was the first place to have women jurors. You can make a difference.

It seems that appointment to one Board invariably leads to others. I've served on seven. One is the federally government funded Australian Women's Coalition. This is a group of 20 women's organisations such as Muslims, Bosnians, Aboriginals, Jewish women, Soroptimists, the Salvos, Guides Australia and UNIFEM which receives a $150,000 retainer annually from Office for Women in Canberra to act as a consultant to them on all issues relating to women and their families. One of the concerns raised by our Women's Coalition was the changing role of grandparents. Either you have no access to grandchildren because of marriage breakdown or you have TOO MUCH access and are bringing up the grandchildren at this age and on a fixed income. We're really proud that as a direct result of our advocacy, grandparents now have access to extra financial assistance through the Child Care Benefit and the Grandparent Child Care Benefit. We have regular face to face meetings with Office for Women in Canberra to voice our concerns and recently we had to opportunity to 'grill' representatives of relevant departments. The Minister of a Department is not always the best person to contact. The Head of the Department actually does the stuff and can advise the Minister. It can sometimes be something quite simple - one of our members said quite bluntly to the guy who runs Centrelink - 'The quality of your Centrelink card is the pits. After a few uses the print has rubbed off - why don't you laminate it?' 'Good idea' said he, not knowing this, because he had never used a Centrelink Card. 'It's costing us to continually issue replacements. Good idea.' So this is a real foot in the door in Canberra.

Through the Defence Reserves Support Council we work to promote more women in the Reserves - not in a crush/kill/destroy capacity but as peacekeepers - something we are all so good at doing every day of our lives. This meant I spent a weekend in the army reserves - it nearly killed me - I was 62 at the time! Had to do the obstacle course about 6 times, fire a rifle and machine gun, climb the wall of death, capture an enemy patrol and sleep on the ground at the Puckapunyal range in amongst the kangaroo poo - and I loved it! They told me afterwards that REAL soldiers know to brush roo poo away Before they lie down - but I didn't know this. The first thing I did when I got home was apologise to my ex-army husband. He's always driven me bananas with his tidiness. ‘A place for everything in its place.' But now I know! Getting dressed in the dark in your shared hootchie on the Puckapyunyal range – among the roo poo - you have to KNOW where your boots and your glasses are. You have to know where you put the matches and the water and the rationpack and the woolly pully. Silly me.

My favourite Board of all is the Firearms Appeals Committee. Should you lose your gun licence you can appeal to this independent Tribunal. This is run by the Department of Justice AND not only do they pay me for this one - but when we sit on the bench at the Magistrate's Court - anyone who enters or leaves the courtroom - bows to us! I could get really used to this. There is often a film crew out the front in William St and I live in terror that I'll appear on your TV screens one night and that our members will say ‘What's she done NOW.' I confided this to a very witty lawyer as we were leaving one day and he grabbed me by the arm and marched me right up to the camera and said ' I'm Innocent! She made me do it! I'm innocent!'

I have left on your tables some flyers about my latest book ‘Teresa Angelica, Nurse Winchester.' I have spent the last twelve months researching and writing it. It is a tribute to my grandmother who left her husband in 1909 taking her five children with her. It's an fascinating story about an amazing woman and will be released in August. It won't be in the bookshops because booksellers take 60%, so I'm selling it myself by mail order.

Now for some other management strategies picked up along the way….. as I said, if you have retired – pass them down to the family.

Know what you DON'T know. And surround yourself with people who fill your gaps. As I said, I failed 7 th Grade Sums. So I needed the best Treasurer on Board. Boards of Management should not be shaped like that – they should be like that, with everyone equal. Not just one person dictating from above. When free tertiary education came in the 70s, and it was no longer needed to have Maths to matriculate, I gained an Arts degree. This gave me tremendous confidence and I found doors opened to me as a result.. The Penguin Club or Toastmasters are a great help in teaching meeting procedures and public speaking.

Do you remember in the old days - in comic books how - if someone got an idea - a light bulb would appear in a balloon above their head PING! When I attended the Australian Government's first Womenspeak Conference in Canberra some years ago I had two such resonant PINGS. The first was hearing Ita Buttrose speaking on leadership

'True leadership is the art of changing a group from what it is to what it ought to be - but' she added

'if your particular leadership style is not able to do this - don't compromise your style - FIND ANOTHER ORGANISATION.'

This happened to her with her magazine ITA. She wanted a beautiful photo of two Vietnamese girls on the cover of one issue. The publishers said 'No - we want blonde Australians.' She couldn't shift them - so she quit. And the magazine folded.

The second 'ping' was another truth and I'm really proud to see that I'm quoted on page 11 of the Australian Government's Resource Kit for women's non-government organisations on this

NEVER think you are too small to make a difference - if you haven't been in bed with a mosquito.

I'm so proud to be Australian.  

Thank you

(Awarded AM 2006 for: For services to the development of national policies relating to issues and concerns of women through NCWA and to the promoting equal status in the community.) DallasBrooks.doc/speeches